Echocardiography in Heart Failure

Abstract

Other factors playing vital roles include age, sex, underlying etiology, and the pattern of neurohormonal mechanisms that attempt to counterbalance the hemodynamic effects of a compromised heart muscle function. In absence of a reversible etiology, these homeostatic changes, however, initiate a vicious cycle in which the chamber progressively dilates, hypertrophies, and becomes spherical – a process referred to as “remodeling.” Echocardiography, by virtue of its ability to provide simultaneous structural and functional assessment, plays a pivotal role for establishing the pattern and magnitude of myocardial dysfunction. Being user friendly, cost effective and readily available, its use has grown widely in recent years for risk stratification of heart failure in patients with either symptomatic or subclinical forms of left ventricular dysfunction and for serial tracking of responses following initiation of therapeutic strategies for halting or reversing cardiac remodeling.