Review of The EAE Textbook of Echocardiography by Leda Galiuto et al.

Excerpt

The EAE Textbook of Echocardiography is the official textbook of the European Association of Echocardiography and is jointly sponsored by the European Society of Cardiology. The editors were able to attract a team of 50 expert cardiologist echocardiographists. In 488 pages, this textbook covers most aspects of echocardiography, from the basics to innovative imaging techniques. The first chapters cover ultrasound imaging principles and transthoracic and transesophageal evaluation. An important part of the book consists of chapters on dedicated techniques such as quantification of left ventricular function and synchrony by strain imaging and speckle tracking, contrast-enhanced echocardiography, and three-dimensional imaging. It is followed by a description of the evaluation of heart function (including some lesser known aspects such as evaluation of atrial function) using all of these techniques. The second half of the book is devoted to the state of the art of the evaluation of most cardiac diseases with echocardiography. The chapters on the evaluation of valvular diseases and cardiomyopathies are particularly well developed. There is a short chapter on non-cardiac vascular echography, but this chapter focuses mostly on chronic vascular diseases and is of limited interest. A chapter is dedicated to perioperative assessment, and another to evaluation of the patient in the emergency department. However, the care of the critically ill patient (that is, myocardial depression in sepsis, heart-lung interactions, and prediction of fluid responsiveness) is not covered in this textbook. Each chapter also includes a very attractive personal perspective by the expert. This helps the reader to find his or her way in the jungle of techniques and indices. …