Clinical Echocardiography

The main target of clinical and academic cardiology activities is to optimize the patient's management and ultimately their welfare. Professionals manage patients according to their own understanding of disease process; clinicians concentrate on alleviating the symptoms and echocardiographers on identifying the disease. This book helps to 'cross the barrier' and describes the common ground between physiologic disturbances and their management which should ideally form the shared basis for understanding and managing all cardiac problems. Clinical Echocardiography is designed to integrate and refine the investigation of cardiac disorders within the framework of the pathologic, physiologic and surgical appearances of heart disease. It has been common to consider echocardiographic findings separately from the more physical aspects of heart disease. However, with the development of new imaging modalities such as three- and four-dimensional echocardiography, it has become necessary to consider this imaging as a window on the heart. This book aids the cardiologist, cardiac surgeon and echocardiographer to integrate their knowledge within the overall management of cardiac disease in a clinically relevant manner.