STRESS ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

DESCRIPTION

This sixth edition isenriched  by over 300 figures, 150 tables and a video-companion collectingmore than 100 cases also presented in the format of short movies and teachingcartoons. This extensively revised and enlarged edition of this long-sellerdocuments the very significant advances made since the fifth (2009) edition andis entirely written by Eugenio Picano, a pioneer in the field sharing hislifetime experience with the help of an international panel of 50 contributorsfrom 22 countries representing some of the best available knowledge andexpertise in their respective field. In a societal and economic climate ofincreasing pressure for appropriate, justified and optimized imaging, stressechocardiography offers the great advantages of being radiation-free,relatively low cost, and with a staggering versatility: we can get more(information) with less (cost and risk). For a long time, the scope andapplication of stress echo remained focused on coronary artery disease. In thelast ten years, it has exploded in its breadth and variety of applications.From a black-and-white, one-fits-all approach (wall motion by 2D-echo in thepatient with known or suspected coronary artery disease) now we have moved onto a omnivorous, next-generation laboratory employing a variety of technologies(from M-Mode to 2D and pulsed, continuous, color and tissue Doppler, to lungultrasound and real time 3D echo, 2D speckle tracking and myocardial contrastecho) on patients covering the entire spectrum of severity (from elite athletesto patients with end-stage heart failure) and ages (from children withcongenital heart disease to the elderly with low-flow, low-gradient aorticstenosis).