Stress Echocardiography: Essential Guide PDF

Preface

Stress echocardiography is a mature clinical tool which in dedicated hands can be immensely useful for patient management. In chronic stable coronary heart disease, research in recent years has shown compellingly that an ischemia-guided management is safe and beneficial for patients. Stress echocardiography is not the only test to identify inducible ischemia, but it is accurate, widely available at relatively low cost, firmly in cardiologists' hands, and radiation-free. It is, however, not an easy technique. Therefore, the editors are delighted to offer the user of this book and DVD a readable, comprehensive, but not encyclopedic introduction to stress echo which is supplemented with a good measure of the most important material to learn stress echo: moving images along with appropriate interpretations. Besides, information on protocols, complications, pitfalls, laboratory organization and many other aspects of the technique are provided by renowned experts in the field who have practiced stress echo for decades. The current applications of stress echo already far exceed the evaluation of chronic coronary artery disease regarding inducible ischemia or contractile reserve and already play an important role in pre-operative risk evaluation, evaluation of the chest pain patient in the emergency room, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies, pulmonary hypertension, and other fields.

The editors sincerely hope that the book and DVD will fulfill its purpose to be truly useful introductions to the technique and companions to clinical practice.

Our most sincere gratitude is expressed to the contributors, who offered time, energy, good imaging material, and patience. The editors wish to thank and acknowledge Masha Neskovic, movie director, for her generous and dedicated help in preparation of the video loop files.We also thank very sincerely Joe Stubenrauch and his co-workers from Informa Healthcare who assisted us in the editing process and ensured that everything in the end fell in place.