Springer-Verlag London Limited | ISBN 978-1-84882-335-8 | ENGLISH | PDF | 194 PAGES | 3.40 MB

Introduction
The idea of writing this book arose from frequent encounters with cardiologists in training and intensivist colleagues who highlighted the contribution of echocardiographic studies to the evaluation of difficult cases. In this, our experience only mirrored the growing role of echocardiography in the immediate management of hemodynamically unstable or acutely ill patients, as increasingly acknowledged in the literature.1–3
Echocardiography is the most versatile cardiac imaging technology readily available today at the patient’s bedside. Its superb diagnostic input relates to the ability to identify any hemodynamic condition and cardiac pathology that implies a morphologic and/ or a flow pattern change. Impressive technological advances over the last half century (Table I.1) and the advent of small, portable, and yet powerful echocardiographic machines pushed this technique in the frontline of diagnostic strategies when dealing with critically ill patients. Indeed, we are witnessing a change of medical practice, whereby, the management of hemodynamically unstable patients relies less on invasive data and increasingly more on the noninvasive assessment immediately obtainable with echocardiography.
It is the aim of this book to be a step-by-step, how- and whatto- do, easy to use guide for the benefit of cardiology and intensive care doctors and sonographers faced with critically ill patients for whom major therapeutic decisions could depend on the information provided by a timely and accurate echocardiographic examination. It tries to address what was perceived to be the practical needs of cardiology trainees and of intensivists faced with the increased use of echocardiography in an acute care setting. Because of the intended dual audience of this book, both pure “cardiological” topics such as aortic pathology, valvular emergencies, mechanical complications of myocardial infarction, or tamponade and more “intensive care” or “mixed” situations such as pulmonary embolism, resuscitation, sepsis, and the need for filling status assessment are covered.

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