Clinical use of echocardiography: a review.
The clinical usefulness of echocardiography can be considered under a few broad categories: (a) measurement of internal structures and their changing relationships to each other throughout the cardiac cycle; (b) demonstration of abnormalities of function which are dependent on motion--for example, the prolapsing mitral leaflet or the paradoxical septal motion in right ventricular volume overload; and (c) changes within the heart such as pericardial effusion which lead to the development of echo-free spaces or the appearance of echo within a normally echo-free chamber as in myxoma.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001020:Aortic Stenosis, Subvalvular / Q000175:diagnosis; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000175:diagnosis; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008946:Mitral Valve Stenosis / Q000175:diagnosis; D009232:Myxoma / Q000175:diagnosis; D010490:Pericardial Effusion / Q000175:diagnosis