ASE 2014: A Not-To-Be Missed Meeting in a Must-See Location!
Todd Belcik; Marti McCulloch MBA, BS, RDCS, FASE and Brad Roberts BS, RCS, RDCS, FASE all served as faculty at Echo Hawaii in January. As I sit here at the…
Silver Anniversary—The 25 thAnnual Scientific Sessions
Benjamin F. Byrd, III, MD, FASE Throughout my career as an echocardiographer, striving to stay on the cutting edge of both clinical practice and research, I have been incredibly fortunate…
Authors’ Reply
We thank Drs Chubb and Simpson for their interest in our article. They correctly stress the importance of body surface area (BSA) estimation and observer error in the calculation of…
True Diameter of Vessels
We read with great interest the study by Kutty et al ., who reported normal values for superior and inferior vena cava dimensions, systemic venous filling fractions, inferior vena cava “collapsibility…
Quantification of Error in the Calculation of ZScores in Neonates
We agree with the conclusions in the article by den Dekker et al . regarding the caution with which Z scores should be interpreted, particularly in neonates. It is well established…
Authors’ Reply
We thank the correspondents for their insightful letter highlighting the theoretical disadvantages of (1) image acquisition of the inferior vena cava (IVC) in its long axis and (2) normalization of…
Advanced Cardiac Amyloidosis Associated with Normal Interventricular Septal Thickness: An Uncommon Presentation of Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy
Background Increased interventricular septal (IVS) thickness on echocardiography is a diagnostic criterion for cardiac amyloidosis and classically precedes decrement in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). The investigators describe patients with…
Preliminary Observations of Prognostic Value of Left Atrial Functional Reserve during Dobutamine Infusion in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Background The importance of left atrial (LA) functional reserve in patients with depressed left ventricular function remains unclear. Thus, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that…
Right Ventricular Mechanics in Adults after Surgical Repair of Tetralogy of Fallot: Insights from Three-Dimensional Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography
Background The clinical relevance of evaluating right ventricular (RV) myocardial deformation in congenital heart disease is increasingly recognized. The aim of this study was to explore, using three-dimensional (3D) speckle-tracking…
Relationship between Echocardiographic and Magnetic Resonance Derived Measures of Right Ventricular Size and Function in Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension
Background Transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) imaging is the mainstay of clinical practice for evaluating right ventricular (RV) size and function, but its accuracy in patients with pulmonary hypertension has not been…
