Echocardiography has become an established and powerful tool
for diagnosing presence of CAD and defining its consequence. It can help in
early detection of acute myocardial infarction (even in the absence of typical
electrocardiographic evidence), evaluation of RWMA, detection of
post-infarction mechanical and functional complications. Stress
echocardiography is useful for evaluating the presence, location and severity
of inducible myocardial ischemia, as well as for risk stratification and
prognostication.
When a patient presents to the emergency room with chest
pain, early diagnosis is warranted to provide appropriate therapy to the
patient. Most important is to know whether pain is ischemic or non-ischemic. Here
lies the role of echocardiography, besides the use to cardiac enzymes to
diagnose acute coronary syndrome. Echocardiography provides the greatest amount
of incremental information when the clinical history and ECG findings are
non-diagnostic.
Echocardiography also helps in identifying non-ischemic
cause for chest pain such as pericarditis, aortic dissection, pulmonary
infarction aortic stenosis or regurgitation.
What to look for in patients of IHD?
I) Regional wall
motion abnormality
2) Global LV systolic
and diastolic functions
3) Assessment of
complications
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