Clinical Application of Echocardiography in Heart Disease

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Cardiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 1438

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Heart Center, Hospital da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa, 1549-008 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: stress echocardiography; echocardiography; hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; coronary artery disease; cardiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of echocardiography in all areas of cardiology has progressed. Since its introduction in clinical practice in 1954 by I. Edler, there has been an increase in technological advances in transthoracic, transesophageal, and stress echocardiography. In recent years, echocardiography has been used in angiography and operating rooms to monitor a myriad of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Its role in Intensive Care units and emergency departments has become outstanding, improving the survival and prognosis of patients.

The absence of radiation also favors the use of echocardiography as the first-line diagnostic method to treat most cardiac pathologies.

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit papers with a focus on the clinical applications of various forms of echocardiography to treat heart disease.

Prof. Dr. Carlos Cotrim
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • transthoracic echocardiography
  • transesophageal echocardiography
  • stress echocardiography
  • valve disease
  • coronary artery disease
  • myocardial disease
  • pericardial disease
  • aortic disease
  • congenital heart disease

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 6677 KiB  
Article
Clinical Application of Exercise Stress Echocardiography in an Outpatient Pediatric Population
by Nuno Cotrim, Hugo M. Café, Jorge Guardado, Pedro Cordeiro, Hortense Cotrim, Rui Martins, Luís Baquero and Carlos Cotrim
J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(8), 2191; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13082191 - 10 Apr 2024
Viewed by 486
Abstract
Background: Exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) is commonly employed in adults, but its applicability in pediatric populations remains to be clarified. Methods: A total of 309 consecutive children (C), with a mean age of 14.1 ± 2.6 years (range 6–17 years), underwent treadmill [...] Read more.
Background: Exercise stress echocardiography (ESE) is commonly employed in adults, but its applicability in pediatric populations remains to be clarified. Methods: A total of 309 consecutive children (C), with a mean age of 14.1 ± 2.6 years (range 6–17 years), underwent treadmill ESE starting in 2002. They were divided into two groups: Group I comprised 258 children, including 237 with symptoms related to exercise (such as chest pain, fatigue, lipothymia/syncope, or one aborted sudden death), 15 with electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities, and 6 with a positive ECG stress test showing ST changes. Group II consisted of 10 asymptomatic children whose parents requested routine screening, 11 with symptoms unrelated to exercise, 12 with a family history of sudden death, and 17 with known pathologies (including 10 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, 2 with aortic coarctation, and the remainder with various conditions, such as Cortriatriatum sinister, pulmonary stenosis, subaortic stenosis, bicuspid aortic valve, left ventricular hypertrophy related to arterial hypertension, and aortic switch operation). Regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMAs) and transvalvular or intraventricular (IVG) gradients were assessed using 2D and continuous-wave Doppler, respectively, in all cases. Results: The success rate was 100% (309/309). Stress-induced RWMAs were observed in two children. A significant IVG (>30 mmHg) was detected in 101 out of the 258 children (39%) in Group I, who presented with exercise-related symptoms, ECG abnormalities, or positive stress ECG. In Group I, the odds ratio (OR) of ESE reproducing the symptoms in children with IVG compared to those without IVG was 8.22 (95% CI: 4.84–13.99, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Treadmill ESE is both feasible and safe for pediatric populations. RWMAs demonstrated limited utility in our cohort of children, while IVG induced by exercise was frequently observed in symptomatic children. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Application of Echocardiography in Heart Disease)
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13 pages, 1319 KiB  
Article
The Prognostic Value of Right Ventricular Function in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure—A Prospective Study
by Nora Schwegel, David Zach, Alexander Peikert, Viktoria Santner, Viktoria Höller, Johannes Gollmer, Johannes Späth, Hermann Riepl, Peter P. Rainer, Markus Wallner, Stefan Pilz, Andreas Zirlik, Dirk von Lewinski, Klemens Ablasser, Nicolas Verheyen and Ewald Kolesnik
J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(7), 1930; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13071930 - 27 Mar 2024
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Abstract
Background: In patients with stable chronic heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) provides limited prognostic value, especially in patients with moderately to severely reduced LVEF. Echocardiographic parameters of right ventricular function may be associated with adverse [...] Read more.
Background: In patients with stable chronic heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) provides limited prognostic value, especially in patients with moderately to severely reduced LVEF. Echocardiographic parameters of right ventricular function may be associated with adverse clinical events in these patients. Therefore, we analyzed 164 patients with HFrEF in a prospective single-center cohort study to evaluate whether the parameters of right ventricular function are associated with worsening heart failure (WHF) hospitalizations, cardiovascular and all-cause deaths and combined endpoints. Methods: Echocardiographic cine loops were analyzed using vendor-independent post-processing software. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed, which were then adjusted for clinical characteristics and left ventricular functional parameters. Results: In these models, higher tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) was significantly associated with lower rates of WHF hospitalizations (HR 0.880, 95%CI 0.800–0.968, p = 0.008), a composite endpoint of WHF hospitalizations and cardiovascular death (HR 0.878, 95%CI 0.800–0.964, p = 0.006), and a composite endpoint of WHF hospitalization and all-cause death (HR 0.918, 95%CI 0.853–0.988, p = 0.023). These associations were more pronounced in patients with LVEF ≤ 35%. Conclusions: In conclusion, in patients with HFrEF, TAPSE is an independent prognosticator for adverse clinical outcomes, warranting further studies to elucidate whether incorporating TAPSE into established risk scores improves their diagnostic accuracy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Clinical Application of Echocardiography in Heart Disease)
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