The growing role of echocardiography in interventional cardiology: The present and the future

Περίληψη

As structural heart disease interventions continue to evolve to a sophisticated level, accurate and reliable imaging is required for pre-procedural selection
of cases, intraprocedural guidance, post-procedural evaluation, and longterm follow-up of patients. Traditionally, cardiovascular procedures in the catheterization laboratory are guided by fluoroscopy and angiography. Advances in echocardiography can overcome most limitations of conventional imaging
modalities and provide successful completion of each step of any catheterbased treatment. Echocardiography’s unique characteristics rendered it the ideal
technique for percutaneous catheter-based procedures. The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the use of the most common and up-to-date echocardiographic techniques in recent non-coronary percutaneous interventional procedures, underlining its inevitable and growing role, as well as illustrating areas of weakness and limitations, and to provide future perspectives.