Clinical application of 3-dimensional echocardiography.

Three-dimensional echocardiography has emerged as a novel non-invasive imaging modality enabling the registration and analysis of volumetric datasets containing information on cardiac structure. This review describes the principles of the method, different acquisition modes and the display options in perspective of clinical applications. Emerging clinical applications are discussed, including improved quantification of cardiac volumes and the ability of more complete, versatile and intuitional display of cardiac pathology. According to the available literature, the most probable fields for practical use of three-dimensional echocardiography are cardiac interventions in such conditions as valvular disease, congenital pathology (septal defects) or cardiac tumors. The most expected development is the introduction of fast, user-friendly systems allowing real-time data acquisition and data processing.