Ultrasound

Abstract

After a brief introduction to echocardiography, sound waves, and ultrasound, this chapter covers the following topics: the behaviour of ultrasound in tissue; reflection, attenuation, and depth compensation; reverberation artefacts; transthoracic, transoesophageal, and other transducers; echocardiography modes; transmit power; gain; grey scale and compression; image resolution; fundamental and second harmonic imaging; Doppler echocardiography; spectral trace analysis; continuous wave and pulsed wave Doppler; colour flow mapping; tissue Doppler imaging; second harmonic Doppler for contrast imaging; power Doppler (amplitude) imaging; 3D echocardiography, artefacts, image display, and image rendering; speckle tracking echocardiography; basic fluid dynamics; and the bioeffects of ultrasound.