Real-Time Three-Dimensional Echocardiography and Myocardial Strain: Ready for Use in Clinical Practice

The ability of echocardiography to quantify volumes and to evaluate the contractile function of cardiac chambers has evolved greatly in recent years, particularly due to the development of real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (echo3D) and the possibility myocardial deformation (Strain) analysis by the speckle tracking technique.^–

Unlike two-dimensional echocardiography, where geometric inferences and mathematical calculations are required, the echo3D allows direct measurement of ventricular and atrial volumes, from which function data such as left and right ventricular ejection fraction, and left atrial function, including total emptying fraction and active emptying fraction parameters.^–

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