OBJECTIVE ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF THE CARDIOVASCULAR-SYSTEM -STATE-OF-THE-ART

For over a quarter of a century, echocardiography has made an unparall eled contribution to clinical cardiology as a major tool for real-time imaging of cardiac dynamics. Echocardiography is widely used to asses s cardiac function and provides noninvasive information, which is inva luable for the diagnosis of Various disease states. However, despite i ts numerous advantages echocardiography has remained mostly qualitativ e and subjective. The continued progress in our understanding of the i nteraction between ultrasound and tissue has brought about several new developments, which allow quantitative analysis of ultrasound data. A mong these new developments are endocardial boundary detection (freque ntly referred to as acoustic quantification) and color kinesis, which provide a more objective, robust, and convenient evaluation of cardiac and vascular dynamics that embraces multiple clinical applications. T his review describes these two techniques, focusing on their current s tatus and the evolving clinical applications.