Role of Echocardiography in Heart Failure

Echocardiography remains the cornerstone of the evaluation and management of heart failure despite the availability of other cardiac imaging modalities. It provides adequate and reliable information on diagnosis, therapeutic options and prognosis in every stage of heart failure. It is reliable, reproducible, widely available and cost-effective tool for the evaluation of heart failure. Echo is fundamental in the initiation and adjustment of medication, patient’s selection for device therapy and heart transplantation. Furthermore, it is crucial in the follow up and evaluation of response to advanced therapy. Despite the limitation of echo-derived ejection fraction, it is the single most important factor in the enrollment in clinical trials and therefore, clinical decision making in the daily clinical practice. New advances in echo open promising new frontiers in utility of echo in prevention, detection and management of heart failure.

Keywords: Cardiac Mechanics, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Contrast Echocardiography, Diastolic Dysfunction, Ejection Fraction, Fractional Area Change (FAC), Fractional Shortening, Heart Failure, Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator, LV Remodeling, Myocardial Performance Index, Myocardial Viability, Noninvasive Hemodynamic, Quinones Equation, Simpson’s Rule, Strain and Strain Rate, Stress Echocardiography, Tei Index, Teiccholz Equation, Tricuspid Annular Plane Systolic Excursion (TAPSE), Wall Motion Score Index.