Use of the Echocardiogram to Define the Presence, Extent, and Etiology of Cardiac Dysfunction
Indications and patient selection Introduction Heart failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome characterized by breathlessness and fatigue. Hemodynamically, HF is caused by the inability to generate adequate cardiac output to meet end organ and peripheral perfusion demands, or to do so only at the expense of elevated cardiac filling pressure. The diagnosis of HF is…
