Author: Catherine M. Otto
Publisher: Elsevier | Saunders – 552 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

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This book is intended for cardiology fellows in their basic echocardiographic rotation but it is also for residents and fellows in anesthesiology, emergency medicine, internal medicine, and radiology, as well as for cardiac sonography students. For physicians already in the practice of cardiology, this textbook functions as a concise and practical update.

This book is based on a clinical approach to echocardiographic diagnosis. It contains 18 chapters. Essentially, basic principles in diagnosis of the heart are first laid out, then the material that follows is on numerous aspects of diagnosis, including:

• Evaluation of left ventricular systolic and diastolic function
• Indications for echocardiography
• Intra-cardiac flow patterns
• Normal tomographic trans-thoracic and trans-esophageal views
• Ultrasound physics

A Glossary of abbreviations used in the field follows the Contents, then a set of tables of units of measures is provided. What is noteworthy is a section that has Key Equations used by cardiologists, including those on:

• Aortic dilation, regurgitations, and stenosis
• Doppler ventricular function
• Left ventricle imaging
• Mitral regurgitation
• Pulmonary pressure and resistance
• Pulmonary to systemic shunt ratio

To give you an overview of the contents of book, these are the chapters:
• Principles of Echocardiographic Image Acquisition and Doppler Analysis
• Normal Anatomy and Flow Patterns on Transthoracic Echocardiography
• Transesophageal Echocardiography
• Advanced Echocardiographic Modalities
• Clinical Indications and Quality Assurance
• Left and Right Ventricular Systolic Function
• Ventricular Diastolic Filling and Function
• Coronary Artery Disease
• Cardiomyopathies, Hypertensive and Pulmonary Heart Disease
• Pericardial Disease
• Valvular Stenosis
• Valvular Regurgitation
• Prosthetic Valves
• Endocarditis
• Cardiac Masses and Potential Cardiac Source of Embolus
• Diseases of the Great Arteries
• The Adult with Congenital Heart Disease
• Intraoperative and Interventional Echocardiography

The beginning of each chapter provides you a summary of topics and subtopics covered in the chapter. What follows is text organized by topic and numerous cardiograms, charts, equations, formulas illustrations, photos, sonograms, tables and other graphic material to aid in learning the material covered in each chapter. At the end you will find a Suggested Reading list, and Useful Web Sites to go to, for additional exploration and study.

This textbook provides an overview of cardiac diagnostic methods and is very useful to those new to echocardiography. It also is helpful to those interested in updating their knowledge in this specialty. It is well-researched and expertly organized, with an ample number and variety of graphics to aid in learning and retaining material.

Catherine M. Otto, MD is the J.Ward Kennedy-Hamilton Endowed Chair in Cardiology and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is also director of the Heart Valve Disease Center, and associate director of the Echocardiography Library at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. She is author, editor, co-editor or contributor of articles to eight other medical books.