Cardiac ultrasound has rapidly developed into one of the most important
clinical methods for diagnosis and follow-up of patients with heart
disease and has changed the practice of cardiology permanently. In
addition to improving image quality, most of the progress relies on
digital image acquisition, storage, and quantitative analysis equipment.
Automatic endocardial detection and three- dimensional reconstruction
are now being developed. The progress with contrast echocardiography for
myocardial perfusion imaging and results with tissue characterization is
slow, but ever increasing, illustrating that the full potential of the
method has not yet been explored. All of these digital techniques are
extensively dealt with in this volume. Computerized tools will help the
clinical cardiologists in their daily practice and stimulate further
development to gen- uinely improve patient care in the coming years. We
wish to thank the authors to this volume for their excellent
contribution and Mrs. T. van der Kolk for secretarial assistance. IX
Contributors F. J. ten Cate Thorax Center, Erasmus University, P. O. Box
1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands R. Erbel II Medical Clinic,
Johannes Gutenberg University, Langenbeckstr. 1, P. O. Box 3960, D-6500
Mainz, FRG Co-authors: R. Zotz, B. Henkel, G. Schreiner, C. Steuernagel,
R. Zahn, H. Kopp, W. Clas, R. Brennecke, P. Schweizer, J. Meyer S. B.
Feinstein Division of Cardiology, Box 44, University of Chicago, 950
East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA D. G. Gibson Department of
Cardiology, Brompton Hospital, Fulham Road, London SW3 6HP, UK
Co-author: R. B. Logan Sinclair E.
