Live/Real Time Three‐Dimensional Transthoracic Echocardiographic Assessment of Pericardial Disease |
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Authors: | Carlos Martinez Hernandez MD Preeti Singh MD Fadi G Hage MD Navin C Nanda MD Ming C Hsiung MD Jeng Wei MD PhD Chung Yi Chang MD Kuo Chen Lee MD Sung How Sue MD Wei Hsian Yin MD PhD Nagwa Ahmed Abdel Rahman Aly MD Onkar Deshmukh MBBS Monodeep Biswas MD Isha Gupta MBBS Kumar Sanam MBBS Upasana Sen MBBS |
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Institution: | 1. Division of Cardiovascular Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama;2. Section of Cardiology, Birmingham Veteran's Administration Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama;3. Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Cheng‐Hsin Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China |
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Abstract: | We studied 19 patients with pericardial disease using two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional transthorathic echocardiography (2DTTE and 3DTTE, respectively) in order to determine whether 3DTTE provides incremental value on top of 2DTTE in the evaluation of these patients. With 3DTTE a more comprehensive assessment of pericardial effusion can be made and both the parietal and visceral layers of the pericardium can be visualized en face and examined for pathologies and fibrin deposits. In our series of patients, 3DTTE was superior to 2DTTE in uncovering mass lesions involving the pericardium such as tuberculous granulomas and metastatic disease. Furthermore, it provided a better assessment of the nature of pericardial lesions, such as pericardial and mediastinal hematomas, pericardial cysts, and metastatic disease to the pericardium by sequential cropping of the 3D data sets and visualizing the interior of the lesions in a manner not possible with 2DTTE. It was also valuable in determining the extent of pericardial calcification in pericardial constriction and in measuring the size of pericardial masses. These preliminary results suggest the superiority of 3DTTE over 2DTTE in the evaluation of pericardial diseases and that it provides incremental knowledge to the echocardiographer. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 26, November 2009) |
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Keywords: | constrictive pericarditis live/real time three‐dimensional transthoracic echocardiography pericardial cyst pericardial disease pericardial disorders pericardial effusion three‐dimensional echocardiography |
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