For the first time, new recommendations have been issued that are a functional guide on how to acquire, analyze, and display the various cardiac structures using three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) and discuss the advantages and limitations of this technique.

A joint committee of the European Association for Echocardiography (Biot, France) and the American Society of Echocardiography (Morrisville, NC, USA) have issued recommendations on image acquisition using 3DE. “The EAE/ASE Recommendations for Image Acquisition and Display Using Three-Dimensional Echocardiography” was published in the January 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE).

The document also describes recent and potential clinical applications of 3DE and its specific strengths and limitations in each setting. 3D echocardiography has been of substantial interest to researchers for more than 30 years, but advances in imaging technology have made this technique more suitable for clinical use. Editor-in-chief Dr. Alan S. Pearlman stated, “I believe that real-time volumetric imaging using 3D echocardiography now provides a practical way to measure ventricular volumes and ejection fraction without making any assumptions about chamber geometry, and suspect that one day this imaging method will surpass current 2D echo imaging, just as 25 years ago 2D imaging supplanted M-mode echocardiography.”

It is increasingly evident that 3D echo provides unique views in patients with valvular and congenital heart disorders, and the clinical use of this technique is expected to grow rapidly.

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