Journal of Cardiovascular Ultrasound  2009;17(2):40-53

doi:10.4250/jcu.2009.17.2.40

Role of Echocardiography in the Emergency Department.

Tae Seok KIM 1 ; Ho Joong YOUN

Affiliations

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Keywords

Echocardiography; Emergencies; Chest pain

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

English

Abstract

Echocardiography can play a key role in the diagnosis, evaluation and triage of patients presenting with acute chest pain in the emergency department, because of its rapid, accurate and repetitive image acquisition. Echocardiography can detect coronary artery disease, complications of acute myocardial infarction, pericardial emergency, acute aortic diseases, and pulmonary embolic events, all of which may cause acute chest pain. Depending on the clinical situation, stress echocardiography or contrast echocardiography may provide additional information. Ongoing technical development of imaging acquisition and analysis in echocardiography will increase its use in the differential diagnosis of acute chest pain.