OPIS

This book offers both experienced cardiologists and trainees alike the opportunity to identify and address the most common pitfalls encountered with echocardiology in routine clinical practice. The book covers a series of challenges ranging from technical difficulties to problems with echocardiographic interpretation with each section presenting a series of simulations to test the reader's understanding of the problem. The text is written in a highly practical and didactic manner which will help the busy physician by presenting the information in a succinct, 'essentials only' manner. The heavy use of high-quality illustrations serves to ensure that the concepts explained are supported by real-life examples and thus readily applicable to the clinical setting.

SECTION 1 - Technical Pitfalls
The physical limitations of echocardiography
Ultrasound artefacts
Patient hypoechogenicity
Problems due to adjustments of the machine settings
Other technical pitfalls

SECTION 2 - Diagnostic Pitfalls
Cardiac valves
Cardiac walls
Cardiac chambers
Systolic and diastolic function of the ventricles
Pulmonary arterial pressures
Thoracic aorta

Christophe Klimczak

Petros Nihoyannopoulos

Dr Petros Nihoyannopoulos, FRCP, is a senior Consultant Cardiologist at Hammersmith Hospital and Reader at the Imperial College London and National Heart and Lung Institute. He qualified in Medicine in 1979 from Strasbourg University in France (Universite Luis Pasteur) and completed his formal cardiac training in London, at the Hammersmith Hospital. Dr Nihoyannopoulos, as Clinical Firm Leader, is heavily involved with everyday clinical practice involving patients with a variety of cardiac conditions. He is also Fellow of many national and international societies and associations including the American Heart Asociation, American College of Cardiology and European Society of Cardiology. He is founding member and past president of the British Society of Echocardiography and is the President-Elect of the European Association of Echocardiography, a Registered Branch of the European Society of Cardiology. Dr Nihoyannopoulos' main research interest is in the study of heart muscle disorders, valvular heart disease as well as acute and chronic coronary syndromes using state-of-the-art echocardiography. He has published more than 160 peered reviewed papers in major international journals as well as more than 40 review articles and book chapters. As part of his academic position, Dr Nihoyannopoulos is committed to teaching under- and post-graduate students on both clinical cardiology and echocardiology courses, where he has made his name as one of the international leading experts in the field.