title: [Echocardiography in emergency medicine: tool or toy?].
abstract: In cardiovascular emergency medicine echocardiography allows in many patients a quick and gentle bedside examination. In particular in patients with acute arterial hypotension, suspected or known acute coronary heart disease and its complications and in patients with acute heart failure due to valvular heart disease a valuable narrowing down of the differential diagnosis can be achieved by the use of echocardiography. However, the use of echocardiography in acutely ill patients demands highly skilled investigators to avoid potentially dangerous errors. The echocardiographic examination in intensive or emergency care patients represents an invaluable diagnostic tool today and becomes a toy only in inexperienced hands.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Intensivmedizin, Medizinische Universitätsklinik Basel.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zuber
authors.forename: H R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Jenzer
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ritz
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004452:Echocardiography; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007022:Hypotension / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
vernacular_title: Echokardiographie in der Notfallmedizin: Werkzeug oder Spielzeug?