The Role of Echocardiography in Hemodynamic Assessment in Heart Failure

Echocardiography now is recommended as the most useful diagnostic test for routine evaluation and management of heart failure. This article reviews the role of echocardiography (M-mode, two-dimensional, spectral, and tissue Doppler) for qualitative and quantitative hemodynamic assessment of the patient who has heart failure. It highlights the echocardiographic parameters that have the most diagnostic and/or prognostic relevance for patients who have advanced heart failure. The importance of right heart failure and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is increasingly recognized, and therefore the echocardiographic evaluation of these conditions is emphasized also.