N. Bom Livres

Focusing on the advancements in non-invasive cardiac diagnostics, this book presents a collection of lectures from Erasmus University Rotterdam, highlighting the collaborative efforts between medical and technical scientists. It is structured into three sections: an introduction to clinical echocardiology, the application of Doppler methods, and an exploration of two-dimensional real-time imaging techniques. The text aims to foster interdisciplinary communication and showcases the evolution of ultrasound technology in cardiac care since the 1940s.

The introduction of intravascular ultrasound has attracted considerable interest because it yields high-resolution images not only of the vessel lumen but also of the vessel wall and its pathology. The first edition of this book, published in 1989, was mainly dedicated to technical approaches and in vitro studies. Now more clinical experience has been gained, including knowledge on coronary arteries. This second edition provides the reader with a concise overview of all information obtained during the last two years, together with the opinions of acknowledged experts in this field.

Intracoronary ultrasound is a rapidly evolving imaging modality and the increasing number of published studies indicates that the technique is safe and provides incremental and more detailed diagnostic information than coronary angiography.The technique has the potential to study the pathobiology of atherosclerosis, to clarify the significance of angiographically equivocal lesions and has helped us to understand the mechanisms, effects and complications of catheter-based revascularization procedures. Combinations of imaging and therapeutic devices are being developed for both guidance and assessment of the revascularization procedure. Three-dimensional reconstruction of coronary segments is now possible in real time and provides the opertor with more detailed information on coronary pathology. In this monograph, leading experts in the field present the state of the art of all these new developments.