Introduction

This is a practical reference that serves to introduce the discipline of echocardiography. It is meant to be integrated with the search capabilities of a modern cell phone. It enables the reader to quickly find, understand, and quote the relevant literature.

The book stems from more than 30 busy years in an academic echocardiography laboratory, and from our initial efforts starting in 1994 to provide free echocardiography education and to promote social media discussions of echocardiography on the Internet.

Topics are succinctly presented to introduce basic concepts and proper terminology. They stem from the ongoing monthly sonographer education meetings of the Central Jersey Echo Society that started in 1989.

Relevant references were carefully selected and added where appropriate. They are meant to introduce the reader to the vast literature of echocardiography. They are provided to serve as a source of further reading. Many are annotated or have keywords in bold. Some references are historic and show the evidence-based foundations of echocardiography.

Most references are easily accessible by using the search capabilities of a smartphone. They can also be easily copied and pasted into the Google Scholar search box.

The best way to learn echocardiography is to see multiple versions and variations of important echo findings. Echo clips in this book can be accessed by reading QR codes with a cell phone camera app, or by using a Web browser.

Existing echocardiography guidelines are not duplicated in this book. Instead, guideline documents are referenced and annotated. Guideline apps should be downloaded by the reader and kept close at hand. Once downloaded, the best way to start with an echo guideline document is to review the images. The videos in this book were chosen to supplement guideline images. Transesophageal videos can be recognized by the angle icon at the top of the screen.

The authors wish to thank Karen Edmonson from McGraw Hill for the constant encouragement and support.

Daniel M. Shindler, MD, FACC

Olga I. Shindler, MD

Alicia Wright, RCS