Why the study?
Although speckle tracking echocardiography has gained importance and entered diagnostic guidelines over the last decade, an overview of its clinical application and added value across cardiac diseases was needed.
Speckle tracking echocardiography is an established, highly feasible, and accurate imaging technique that provides significant added value in the clinical assessment of various cardiac pathologies.
Supports integration of speckle tracking into echocardiography protocols; leaves open need for prospective outcome trials.
Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) cannot be considered a recent technique anymore. Its application has gained growing importance over the last decade in several clinical settings, and the deformation analysis has fully entered in diagnostic algorithms and guidelines of various pathologies. STE allows to track the displacement of "speckles" in two-dimensional (2D) echocardiographic images in an angle-independent way and to assess their movement (strain) during the cardiac cycle. Its high feasibility, reproducibility, and accuracy have been widely demonstrated. In this review, we describe how STE has been applied to different aspects of the daily clinical practice, including ischemic heart diseases, heart valve disease, heart failure, and prognostication, highlighting the possible added value that strain parameters have shown over the years.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Cameli et al. (2019) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: