title: Myocardial ischaemia and viability: the pivotal role of echocardiography.
abstract: Echocardiography has a central role for the diagnosis and management of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. Besides the fact that it provides an essential role in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with chest pain in the emergency department, echocardiography provides a comprehensive non-invasive haemodynamic and functional assessment of those patients. Stress echocardiography in many institutions is now the preferred stress modality associated with imaging as it is cost-effective and does not use ionizing radiation. It is used for assessing patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease, risk stratification and for assessing myocardial viability. The recent introductions of ultrasound contrast agents as well as deformation imaging techniques have eliminated the last limitations of stress echocardiography such as image quality and quantification, respectively.
authors.affiliation: National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK. petros@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Petros
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nihoyannopoulos
authors.forename: Jean Louis
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Vanoverschelde
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D003287:Contrast Media; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004176:Dipyridamole; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004298:Dopamine; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000379:methods; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D017682:Myocardial Stunning / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014022:Tissue Survival; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
chemical_list: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents; D003287:Contrast Media; D004176:Dipyridamole; D004298:Dopamine