An international meeting of experts on Cardiovascular Imaging by Ultrasound was held in Aachen from 26-27 April, 1991. It provided new and interesting insights into what has already been achieved in ultrasound-based cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy and what will be introduced in clinical practice in the near future. Since the introduction of ultrasound in clinical practice in 1984 there has been no other physical principle that has added and will continue to add so much to clinical diagnosis and therapy. Echocardiography, once established as a non-invasive diagnostic tool, is increasingly becoming an invasive technique for cardiovascular imaging. This book contains the edited contributions from 38 scientists and engineers from all over the world who presented the most up-to-date findings on 2-dimensional echocardiography, different Doppler modalities, contrast and stress echocardiography and the different modalities of transesophageal echocardiography, including mono-, bi- and multiplane TEE, as well as pulsed and CW-Doppler application via TEE. Exciting and promising developments are discussed in the field of intravascular ultrasound, tissue characterization, ultrasound ablation, ultrasound-based 3-dimensional reconstruction of the heart, and high frequency Doppler analysis.

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One / Doppler Assessment of Valve and LV Function I.- 1. Clinical Application of the Analysis of Diastolic Mitral Inflow: Differentiation of Restriction and Constriction.- 2. Noninvasive Assessment of Left Ventricular Systolic and Diastolic Function Using Doppler Mitral Regurgitant Velocity Profile.- 3. What does Pulmonary Vein Flow Analysis Add to the Assessment of Left Ventricular Hemodynamics?.- Two / Doppler Assessment of Valve and LV Function II.- 4. Doppler Echocardiographic Assessment of Mitral Valve Stenosis Before and After Balloon Catheter Valvuloplasty.- 5. Dynamics of the Intraventricular Diastolic Flow Velocity Profile in Hypertrophic Obstructive Cardiomyopathy.- 6. Is Ultrasound of Clinical Value in the Management of Heart Transplant Patients?.- 7. Quantification of Mitral Regurgitation Using Amplitude-Weighted Mean Velocity.- 8. Contrast Color Doppler-Echocardiography. Improved Diagnosis of Mitral and Tricuspid Regurgitation.- Three / New Clinical Frontiers of Echocardiography I.- 9. Three-dimensional Reconstruction of the Mitral Valve.- 10. Determination of Left Ventricular Volume of Means of a Transpulmonary Echocardiographic Contrast Agent.- 11. Preliminary Clinical Experience with Intracoronary AlbunexR: a Standardized Echocontrast Agent.- 12. Influence of ACE-inhibition on Diastolic LV-function in Patients with CHD.- 13. Dobutamine or Dipyridamole Echocardiography: Which Test for Which Patient?.- Four / New Clinical Frontiers of Echocardiography II.- 14. Identification of Viable Myocardium: Dobutamine Echocardiography Versus Positron Emission Tomography.- 15. Ultrasonic Backscatter Imaging for Characterization of Cardiac Structure and Function.- 16. Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Pulmonary Embolism.- 17. Which Role Will Ultrasound Have with Regard to NMR Images?.- 18. Echo Phase Analysis for Noninvasive Localization of Accessory Pathways: an Adjunct to Endocardial Mapping in the Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome.- Five / Current Application of TEE.- 19. Diseases of the Aorta - Critical Evaluation of the Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography.- 20. The Added Importance of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Imaging Regurgitation through Prosthetic Valves.- 21. The Role of Transesophageal Echocardiography in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease.- 22. The Role of CW Doppler in Transesophageal Echocardiography.- Six / Future Application of TEE.- 23. Design Considerations for a Transesophageal Probe.- 24. Annular Array Multiplanar TEE Probe Allowing 3D Reconstruction of Cineloops of the Heart.- 25. The Multiplane Probe: Extracting the Full Information from the Transesophageal Window. The Aachen Experience.- 26. Multiplanar Transesophageal Echocardiography.- Seven / Intravascular and Intracardiac Ultrasound Imaging.- 27. Epicardial Coronary Arterial Imaging by Ultrasound: What Have We Learned?.- 28. Intravascular Ultrasound: Instrumentation, Image Interpretation, Promises and Pitfalls.- 29. New Directions in Intravascular Ultrasound.- 30. Coronary Intravascular Ultrasound: Rationale, Technology, and Initial Clinical Applications.- 31. The Use of Intracoronary Ultrasound to Assess Post-intervention Vessel Wall Responses.- 32. Quantitative Coronary Angiography plus Intravascular Ultrasound. Useful Additional Information.- Eight / New Technologies in Ultrasound.- 33. Ultrasound Angioplasty.- 34. In Vitro Analysis of a Model of Intracardiac Jet: a Laser Doppler Anemometric Study.- 35. Ultrasonic Characterization of Normal and Diseased Myocardium.- 36. The Clinical Impact of Computer Assisted Evaluation of Ultrasonic Tissue and Flow Data.- 37. Transesophageal Stress Echocardiography: the Combined Use of Transesophageal Atrial Pacing and Transesophageal Twodimensional Echocardiography.- 38. Transesophageal Echo Computer Tomography: Computational Reconstruction of Any Desired View of the Beating Heart.- 39. Future Directions in Cardiovascular Ultrasound.