Echocardiography and detection of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Non-invasive imaging modalities play an important role in the evaluation and management of patients with known or suspected coronary heart disease (CAD). This chapter will describe how we should use echocardiography in acute and chronic CAD at rest and during stress. In patients with established or suspected CAD, echocardiography provides useful information on the status of global and segmental myocardial function, the presence of functional mitral regurgitation and potentially of other signs of myocardial ischaemia. Echocardiography can be used to identify complications such as severe ventricular failure, acute mitral regurgitation, papillary muscle rupture, wall rupture, left ventricular (LV) thrombus, and cardiac tamponade. Inducible ischaemia is typically evaluated by stress echocardiography and will also be discussed in this chapter.