Interesting Cases in Echocardiography

Despite many path-breaking advances in cardiology, echocardiography remains the most cost-effective noninvasive technique in the assessment of various cardiac disease entities. It serves as a valuable tool in the armamentarium of a practicing cardiologist. World Conferences on Echocardiography have been successfully organized practically every year for the past 22 years. The latter conferences have taken the format of brief interesting and instructive case presentations by a large number of faculties. These case presentations have proven very popular and it was felt that an effort should be made to publish some of these cases in a book format in both print and internet versions. This book “Interesting Cases in Echocardiography”, therefore, represents a compilation of more than 280 interesting and instructive cases submitted by several echocardiographers, cardiologists and other physicians from many different parts of the world. The book is organized into 11 sections, all of which consist of case presentations. The pattern followed in many cases consists of a brief patient history and relevant clinical findings, echocardiographic images/movie clips, one or more multiple-choice questions with correct answers provided and a short relevant discussion. Pertinent references are also given in some cases. The first three sections of the book deal with the mitral, aortic, tricuspid and pulmonary valves as well as the aorta and pulmonary hypertension. The next two sections cover prosthetic valves, rings, plugs and clips, and infection and endocarditis respectively. These are followed by coronary artery disease, and left/right ventricles and cardiomyopathies. Pericardial disorders, tumors and masses, and congenital heart disease are dealt with next. The last section consists of miscellaneous cases plus a few cases which were submitted late and, hence, could not be accommodated in the relevant sections. Almost all cases predominantly deal with echocardiography with some showing comparisons with other techniques, mainly magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomographic scans.