Transesophageal echocardiography is a valuable adjunctive imaging tool for evaluating complex pericardial diseases and tamponade when standard transthoracic echocardiography is insufficient.
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Supports TEE selection after inadequate TTE in complex pericardial disease; leaves open need for prospective validation.
While most pericardial disorders can be imaged by transthoracic echocardiography, transesophageal echocardiography may be required in those cases where pericardial pathology is clinically suspected, but cannot be imaged adequately with transthoracic echocardiography. Transesophageal echocardiography is especially helpful in patients after heart or chest surgery, with cardiac compression by a loculated pericardial hematoma, in patients with dissection, endocarditis, or interatrial shunting associated with pericardial effusion, in patients with pericardial tumors, and in the differential diagnosis between constrictive pericarditis and restrictive cardiomyopathy.
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Kronzon et al. (1994) studied this question.
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