CSC Diagnostic Imaging & Procedures Flashcards

In echocardiography, the parasternal long axis view best assesses:

Answer: Mitral valve, aortic valve, left ventricle, and aortic root

The parasternal long axis (PLAX) view provides excellent visualization of the mitral valve, aortic valve, left ventricle, and aortic root.

Doppler echocardiography measures:

Answer: Blood flow velocity and direction

Doppler echocardiography uses the Doppler effect to measure blood flow velocities and directions within the heart and great vessels.

A stress echocardiogram is used primarily to detect:

Answer: Inducible myocardial ischemia

Stress echocardiography identifies regions of inducible ischemia by comparing wall motion at rest versus stress (exercise or pharmacologic).

Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is preferred over transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for evaluating:

Answer: Left atrial thrombus and aortic dissection

TEE provides superior image quality for posterior structures like the left atrial appendage and descending aorta, making it ideal for detecting thrombus and aortic dissection.

Color flow Doppler in echocardiography encodes blood flow direction as:

Answer: Red = toward transducer, Blue = away from transducer

By convention (BART), red indicates flow toward the transducer and blue indicates flow away from the transducer in color Doppler imaging.

The E/e' ratio in tissue Doppler imaging is used to estimate:

Answer: Left ventricular filling pressures (diastolic function)

The E/e' ratio correlates with left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and is a key parameter for assessing diastolic function and filling pressures.