Role of Echocardiography in Facilitating Detection of Malnutrition-Induced Cardiovascular Effects in Low-Resource Settings

Malnutrition has been acknowledged as a major public health concern, as the medical and socioeconomic impacts are serious and lasting for individuals, family members, communities, and nations. The purpose of the current article is to explore the cardiovascular consequences of malnutrition, enlist the clinical utility of echocardiography, enumerate the public health applications of echocardiography, identify challenges in the implementation, and propose public health recommendations to overcome the identified challenges. The inclusion of echocardiography in malnutrition has the potential to bridge diagnostic gaps by facilitating the detection of early cardiac changes even in asymptomatic persons and ensuring that targeted interventions can be implemented in resource-constrained settings. Regardless of the utility of echocardiography in the detection and monitoring of malnutrition-related cardiac problems, the full-fledged implementation of the same in low- and middle-income nations has its share of challenges. In conclusion, echocardiography is an effective tool to detect the cardiovascular effects of malnutrition. The integration of echocardiography into public health initiatives can provide vital insights into the burden of malnutrition-related cardiac dysfunction, and this calls for the need to overcome the potential challenges to improve health outcomes in underserved populations.