Vascular Imaging in Focus: March JASE

The March JASE issue is now online and features an Original Investigation “Noninvasive Assessment of Mean Pulmonary Artery Pressure: A Comparison of Doppler Echocardiographic Methods.” Regarding this paper, author Jonathan M. Wong, MD, FASE, remarked, “We set out to compare the performance of multiple echocardiographic-derived measurements of mean pulmonary artery pressure against the gold standard by cardiac catheterization.  We found that the diagnostic yield and performance between each echocardiographic-derived method varied, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, methods using the tricuspid regurgitant signal with IVC assessment were most strongly correlated with invasive measurements. However, we also found that incorporating multiple tricuspid and pulmonic regurgitation parameters enhanced the diagnostic accuracy for pulmonary hypertension (defined as mPAP > 20 mmHg), and I think future studies in larger populations should confirm these findings.”

The focus of the issue is vascular ultrasound, which is the subject of an original investigation regarding assessment of thoracic aortic aneurysm and mortality, and two state of the art reviews on performing the carotid duplex examination and assessing vascular health in children and adolescents. Other topics include outcome after neonatal diagnosis of atrial septal defect, the impact of foreshortening on the optimal intersection angle between the apical views, and left ventricular remodeling and outcomes in Fabry disease.

In this month’s President’s Message, ASE President David Wiener, MD, FASE and Purvi Parwani, MBBS, MPH, FASE explore Women in Echo and how ASE membership today reflects equal gender distribution.

Please see the March ASE Education Calendar for a listing of educational opportunities far and wide.