Editor: Edward A. Gill, MD
Publisher: Elsevier Saunders – 375 pages
Book Review by: Nano Khilnani

While three-dimensional viewing of the heart and associated parts has been around since the early 1970s, it was the development of technologies later in the 1970s and in the 1980s that dramatically improved the views. The early blurred, indistinct images that were possible to obtain, barely resembled the heart, the editor Dr. Edward Gill writes in chapter 1.  

Better devices were developed and computing power dramatically increased during those years, so by the 1990s much sharper imaging made 3D echocardiography an increasingly popular diagnostic method. However, it was never real time imaging until much later.

The first attempts at real-time 3DE were made in the 1990s by von Ramm and others at Duke University. Dr. Gill points out that 2002 was a significant year in the history of echocardiography. He writes: “The major transition from research to clinical tool for 3DE happened in 2002 when the first reasonably user-friendly version of real-time 3DE (RT3DE) was introduced. This was also the first version of RT3DE to have diagnostic-quality 3DE images performed by an ultrasound system that was capable of both 2DE and 3DE.”  

What do you hope to find in this book and what are you looking for? Below is an overview of the contents so you can go to any chapter or chapters and read up on what is most interesting and important to you. This book is organized into 17 chapters, namely:

 

  1. Historical perspectives on three-dimensional echocardiography
  2. Integration of three-dimensional echocardiography in routine clinical practice
  3. Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography systems
  4. Evaluation of the aortic valve 
  5. Normal mitral valve anatomy and measurements
  6. Mitral stenosis
  7. Planning and guiding mitral valve repair
  8. Prosthetic heart valves
  9. Tricuspid valve
  10. Pulmonary valve in health and disease
  11. Volumetric assessment
  12. Assessment of left ventricle mechanical dyssynchrony
  13. Assessment of right ventricle function
  14. Guidance of catheter-based cardiac interventions
  15. Congenital heart disease
  16. Evaluation of intracardiac masses
  17. Use of the cropping tool to show structure of interest

This book provides you photos of devices, accessories and equipment that have been used over the years in echocardiography, and the progression over the decades in quality of the images obtained with them. A large number of echocardiographs are provided for your view, along with related visuals explaining the findings, such as charts and tables.     

You can access the contents of this book online through any Internet-ready device. You can also search all Expert Consult titles you own. And link to PubMed abstracts.

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If you are a first-time user,

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This is a very practical book for cardiologists. It presents the devices, methods of use, results to be obtained, and other aspects in three-dimensional echocardiography. Dr. Edward Gill and the many experts named below who provided excellent content, are to be congratulated for this highly useful book.

Edward A. Gill, MD, FAHA, FASE, FACP, FACC, FNLA is Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology; and Adjunct Profess of Radiology, and Director of Echocardiography in the Harborview Medical Center, at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He is also Clinical Professor of Diagnostic Ultrasound at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington.  

Contributors:
Tara Bharucha, MB BChir, MA
Nichole M. Bhave, MD
Alicia A, Bourne, BS, RDCS
Jennifer L. Dorosz, MD
Renata G. Ferreira, MD
Edward A. Gill, MD
Judy Hung, MD
Carly Jenkins, PhD
Rachel Karl, RDCS
Cliona Kenny, MB
Berthold Klas, BS
Roberto M. Lang, MD
G. Bukhard Mackenson, MD
Gary S. Mak, MD
Denise M. McRee, RDCS
Luc Mertens, MD, PhD
Mark J. Monaghan, PhD
Ernesto E. Salcedo, MD
Ivan S. Salgo, MD
Florence H. Sheehan, MD
Eric J. Sisk, BA, RDCS
Lissa Sugeng, MD, MPH
Terese Tognazzi-Evans, RDCS
Mary-Pierre Waiss, BS, RDCS
Lynn Weinert, BS, RDCS
Elisa Zaragoza-Macias, MD