Three-dimensional echocardiography: the future today!

Three-dimensional echocardiography depicts the heart and its structures in their realistic forms. This capability decreases variability both in the qu ality and the interpretation of complex pathology, among investigators. The refore, it is likely that the method will become the standard echocardiogra phy examination in the future. The availability and versatility ill use of the volumetric data set allows to retrieve an infinite number of cardiac cr oss-sections which allow more accurate and reproducible measurements of val ve areas, masses and cavity volumes by obviating geometric assumptions. In the future new physiologic parameters will provide additional information a nd will allow to address new clinical questions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.