Principles and Practice of Echocardiography

Part 1 Physical principles, instrumentation, and routine examination: physical principles of ultrasound; cross-sectional scanning - technical principles and instrumentation; digital image processing; cross-sectional echocardiographic examination; standard plane positions - standard imaging planes; three-dimensional reconstruction of echocardiographic images; principles of Doppler flow measurement; Doppler instrumentation; principles of flow; Doppler signal processing; principles of colour flow mapping; fluid dynamics of regurgitant jets and their imaging by colour Doppler; the routine Doppler examination; M-mode echocardiography - principles and examination techniques; miscellaneous echocardiographic techniques I - contrast echocardiography; miscellaneous echocardiographic techniques II - transesophageal, epicardial, intraoperative, and intravascular/intracardiac echocardiography, and sonomicrometry; left ventricular inflow tract I - the mitral valve; left ventricular inflow tract II - the left atrium, pulmonary veins and coronary sinus; left ventricular outflow tract - the aortic valve, aorta and subvalvular outflow tract; left ventricle I - general considerations, assessment of chamber size and function; left ventricle II - segmental dysfunction - concept and techniques of measurement; left ventricle III - coronary artery disease - clinical manifestations and complications; left ventricle IV - assessment of myocardial perfusion with contrast two-dimensional echocardiography; left ventricle V - diastolic function - its principles and evaluation; echocardiographic assessment of the cardiomyopathies; right ventricular inflow tract; right ventricular outflow tract; right ventricle; interatrial and interventricular septa; Doppler estimation of volumetric flow; complex congenital heart disease I - a diagnostic approach; complex congenital heart disease II - a pathologic approach; foetal echocardiography; coronary arteries; pericardial diseases; cardiac tumours and masses; echocardiographic findings in infective endocarditis; echo-Doppler assessment of prosthetic heart valves; echocardiography in cardiac transplantation; the echocardiogram in disorders of cardiac rhythm and conduction; tissue characterizations. Appendix A: normal cross-sectional echocardiographic measurements in adults; Appendix B: application of Fourier analysis in echocardiography.