Archives for April 2025
Echo Magazine March/April 2025
Don’t Be Fooled: April CASE is No Joke
The latest issue of CASE is now available with intriguing reports, including “Emotional Stress Triggered Severe Mitral Regurgitation: The Multifactorial Interplay of the Mitral Valve.” CASE Editor-in-Chief Vincent Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “Aker et al. provide readers with an intriguing manuscript on the transient nature of MR. In their report, a 77-year-old woman (HFpEF from hypertensive heart disease) demonstrated severe MR with normal LV systolic function during a routine serial TTE. There was malcoaptation of normal-appearing MV leaflets in the setting of patient distress and complaints of feeling ‘emotional’ and ‘overwhelmed.’ Through counseling, the patient became calmer and within 10 minutes, a repeat TTE demonstrated dramatic changes: mild MR, smaller LA, lower RVSP, and improved semi-quantitative findings of MR. These changes occurred without detectable changes in LV global or LV regional function and without significant changes in BP or HR. This report should serve as an important reminder on the transient nature of MR and the need to document the clinical setting (including BP) on all reports. To quote these authors’ conclusions: ‘Physicians should be encouraged to consider psychological factors and routine preassessment of BP before and during echocardiography when evaluating patients for [MR] given the highly dynamic characteristics of the MV.’”
The remainder of this issue tackles a variety of topics in the Multimodality Imaging, Coronary Artery Disease, Infections in the Heart, and Valvular Heart Disease categories. Cianci et al. report on a potential association of cardiac sarcoidosis with ulcerative colitis, presenting a variety of CV images and a summary of existing literature. Torres-Valencia et al. describe a missed myocardial infarction due to coexisting symptoms of COVID-19. With the use of TTE, TEE, and CCT imaging, Sahebjam et al. find a vegetation within a coronary artery fistula, a rare location for endocarditis. Rounding out this issue is Valvular Heart Disease with a report from Corsi et al. demonstrating the vast variation in clinical presentations of patients with QAV.
Be sure to check out the latest Unlock the CASE on the CASE homepage, which was the winning entry from the Cardio-oncology SIG Case Competition.
SUBMIT your case report to us! Whether it will be your first time submitting a case or your 50th, we are here to make it a great experience. Email us with questions or submit your report today!
Read the April JASE
The April issue of JASE includes a brief research communication titled, “Role of Quantitative Assessment of Atrial Functional Mitral Regurgitation.” Lead author Jwan A. Naser, MBBS, remarks, “Atrial functional mitral regurgitation (AFMR) is now a well-established entity associated with atrial fibrillation and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. The present study shows that while the categorical presence of AFMR was associated with increased mortality, the degree of AFMR across the range of effective orifice area values did not appear to confer additional risk. In contrast, variables reflecting atrial myopathy and diastolic dysfunction including E/e’ ratio and left atrial volume were linearly associated with increased mortality.”
Three other brief research communications accompany this one, addressing limited concordance of LV ejection fraction and chamber dimensions with automated assessments in HCM, the valid role of height-based pediatric echocardiographic Z-scores, and normal fetal ventricular strain in a pilot study. This issue’s original investigations incorporate a variety of topics including phenotypes and outcomes in aortic valve disease, echo-based machine learning and ICU outcomes, and congenital heart disease. An editorial comment accompanies a pilot study on how acute maternal hyperoxygenation can predict hypoxia and the need for emergency intervention in fetuses with transposition of the great arteries. Rounding out this issue are letters to the editor regarding blood pressure and echocardiographic interpretation as well as the mitral annular disjunction phenotype.
This month’s President’s Message written by Allyson Boyle, MHA, ACS, RDCS, FASE, and Ashlee Davis, ACS, RDCS, RCCS, FASE, discusses the musculoskeletal impact on those in cardiovascular ultrasound careers. This issue also features a special article on tailoring sonographer career paths with guidance from the ASE Sonographer Career Ladder Workgroup.
A new call for papers is now open! A focus issue on chamber quantification is set for publication in 2026. Papers that address any aspect of echocardiography in quantitative assessment of the cardiac chambers should be submitted by August 1, 2025. Please direct questions to JASE managing editor Debbie Meyer at DMeyer@ASEcho.org.
Tune into our Author Spotlight page for interviews between JASE Editor-in-Chief Patricia Pellikka, MD, FASE, and authors of recently published papers. March’s interview features Monica Mukherjee, MD, MPH, FASE, discussing ASE’s newest guideline, “Guidelines for the Echocardiographic Assessment of the Right Heart in Adults and Special Considerations in Pulmonary Hypertension: Recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography.”
Please see the April ASE Education Calendar for a listing of educational opportunities far and wide.