Archive for the ‘Science Writing’ Category

Physiological mitral regurgitation is NOT mild MR

Dr Benoy Shah delivered an interesting and fun talk at the Royal Society of Medicine’s ‘Advanced Imaging’ course today, in which he indirectly addressed a question previously discussed in this blog – is mild mitral regurgitation normal? He supported the argument made in the previous article on this topic in saying that closing jets – […]

Is mild mitral regurgitation normal?

Dr Sanjay Gupta is a consultant cardiologist who posts informative videos online about the heart, primarily to help patients (as opposed to students or fellow practitioners). His videos provide reassurance by improving people’s understanding of various conditions that they may have heard about or potentially suffer from. Dr Gupta recently created a video in which he […]

The use of contrast in transesophageal echocardiography in patients with atrial fibrillation

Transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) is considered the gold standard imaging modality for detection of thrombi in the left atrium and left atrial appendage. Multiplane images taken of the left atrial appendage (LAA) are particularly important. This is particularly important in patients due for cardioversion (for treatment of atrial fibrillation), yet there are still a significant number […]

Mitral regurgitation as a complication of ischaemic heart disease: the future is echo

Functional mitral regurgitation is a common complication of ischaemic heart disease. Echocardiography has already played a huge role in transforming patient management, as well as surgical practice. With continued technological advances, we expect to see an even closer relationship between surgeons and echocardiographers in the near future.

The NHS Echocardiography Crisis

In a recent edition of ECHO, BSE President Rick Steeds discusses the key role the Society plays in upholding standards of echocardiography in the UK, but sees the BSE’s responsibility for addressing the skill shortage as one of “highlighting” the problem to other organisations – but not necessarily something the BSE can tackle directly. In the following article, we question whether the BSE itself could do more to tackle the growing problem.

Indications for stress echocardiography

Stress echocardiography is a safe, noninvasive and relatively cost-effective way to assess for coronary artery disease, stenosis severity and contractile reserve in particular subgroups of patients. Stress echo can refer to TTE performed during exercise or phamacological stress. The major indications for stress echo in humans are discussed in the following article.

How to assess the aortic valve with echocardiography

How to assess the aortic valve with echocardiography   Aortic valve disease can have a range of aetiologies, including: Congenital: –  Unicuspid, quadricuspid or bicuspid aortic valve. The first two are usually discovered in infancy, but a bicuspid valve may remain asymptomatic for many decades. Whilst relatively common in humans, bicuspid aortic valves are rare […]

What is parallel beam forming?

Parallel beam forming can be performed in both reception and transmission (Demi et al., 2013). It speeds up the rate of data acquisition (Hoskins et al., 2010), which can be used to increase the frame rate, field of view, more frame averaging to reduce noise, or reduce acquisition time (particularly important for 3D imaging). Parallel […]

What is Power Doppler?

The history of Doppler in the world of medical ultrasound began with spectral Doppler, but its use did not really take off until the introduction of colour Doppler in the early 1980s. Whilst a qualitative modality (arguably semi-quantitative with more recent publications in echocardiography on estimating regurgitant jet size as a percentage of the receiving […]

Obsessive with ultrasound?

Somewhat surprisingly, a link between ultrasound and mental health illnesses has been recently discovered – namely, ultrasound and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).