The Use of Echocardiographic Techniques for Determining Cardiac Function During Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Two-dimensional echocardiography (2DE) has proven to be a clinically useful diagnostic and prognostic noninvasive modality. Advances in instrumentation have led to the widespread use of this technique, not only in standard noninvasive laboratories, but also in such critical care areas as the coronary care unit and surgical—medical intensive care units. 2DE is a truly portable, totally noninvasive technique with no known biologic hazards. It can be performed serially and provides high-resolution (2–4 mm) rapid tomographic information about cardiac chambers, valves, pericardial structures, and great vessels. The ability to image the heart rapidly through multiple tomographic planes allows the clinician to use this noninvasive test to determine quickly the differential diagnoses in patients who come to hospitals with chest-pain syndromes (table 23–1).