scope:

Preface

Echocardiography is one of the most useful cardiac investigations - it is safe, painless, non-invasive, relatively inexpensive and provides key diagnostic information across a wide range of conditions. It does, however, require a high level of knowledge and experience - sonographers need a good understanding of ultrasound physics, anatomy, physiology and clinical cardiology, and need to undertake a substantial number of echo studies in order to attain (and maintain) their skills.

The aim of Making Sense of Echocardiography is to provide the echo trainee with a comprehensive yet readable introduction to echo, and to provide more experienced sonographers with an accessible handbook for reference when required. The approach to echo studies taken in this book is based on the guidelines published by national echo societies, in particular the British Society of Echocardiography (BSE), and I am particularly grateful to the BSE and the British Heart Foundation for their permission to use their recommended reference ranges throughout the book.

A good knowledge of clinical cardiology is important to appreciate the key features that need to be assessed in a particular echo study - for instance, knowing the indications for valve surgery makes it easier to know what information the referring clinician will want to see in an echo report on an abnormal valve. For this reason, the clinical aspects of disease management are interwoven with the information on how to perform echo studies throughout this book.

I am grateful to everyone who has taken the time to comment on draft copies of the text and to all those who have provided echo images for this book. Finally, I would like to thank all of the staff at Hodder Arnold who have contributed to the success of the Making Sense . . . series of books.