Mitral Valve Disease
Mitral Valve Disease The mitral valve was the first of the four cardiac valves to be evaluated with echocardiography. This was due to the relatively high prevalence of rheumatic heart…
Uterine Contraction Monitoring
Uterine Contraction Monitoring In discussions on the benefits of fetal monitoring, uterine contraction monitoring is most often ignored. The initial development of fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring was concerned with…
Alternative and Backup Methods to Improve Interpretation of Concerning FHR Patterns
Alternative and Backup Methods to Improve Interpretation of Concerning FHR Patterns The majority of fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns seen in labor at some point will evolve into those that…
Masses, Tumors, and Source of Embolus
Masses, Tumors, and Source of Embolus Normal Variants and Artifacts: Sources of False-Positive Findings The echocardiographic evaluation of intracardiac masses is critically dependent on the ability to distinguish normal from…
Physiologic Basis of Fetal Monitoring
Physiologic Basis of Fetal Monitoring Clinical fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring is an ongoing observation of human fetal physiology. The question being asked by the clinician is: What is the…
Dilated Cardiomyopathies
Dilated Cardiomyopathies Clinical and Echocardiographic Overview Cardiomyopathy represents a diverse group of diseases intrinsic to the myocardium. By strict definition, they are a primary disorder of the heart muscle and…
Umbilical Cord Blood Gases to Assess Fetal Condition at Birth
Umbilical Cord Blood Gases to Assess Fetal Condition at Birth The assessment of the fetal condition at birth had traditionally been restricted to the Apgar score. It is interesting to…
Prosthetic Valves
Prosthetic Valves The era of valve surgery preceded the development of echocardiography by only a few years. It is therefore not surprising that one of the earliest applications of echocardiography…
Intrauterine Hypoxia and Other Causes of Neonatal Encephalopathy and Cerebral Palsy
Intrauterine Hypoxia and Other Causes of Neonatal Encephalopathy and Cerebral Palsy Electronic fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring has been extensively studied with respect to the effects of hypoxemia on the…
History of Fetal Monitoring
History of Fetal Monitoring Dt is somewhat surprising that something as potentially accessible as the fetal heart was neither heard nor described until the 17th century when Phillipe LeGaust first…
