Recent Techniques in Echocardiography: Two-Dimensional Echocardiography

Conventional M-mode echocardiography is a widely used noninvasive diagnostic technique. It allows bedside assessment of cardiac chamber dimensions, valve motion and left ventricular function. The limitations of this technique are that it (1) provides only a one-dimensional (icepick) view of the heart, (2) displays cardiac structures in an unfamiliar form that bears no resemblance to cardiac anatomy, and (3) does not provide information regarding spatial orientation of cardiac structures. These limitations led to the development of two-dimensional (2-D) real-time echocardiography in the last decade. The 2-D echo allows simultaneous visualization of cardiac structures in real time through multiple planes