Application of novel sonographic technologies in coronary surgery

Coronary heart disease (CHD), as the leading cause of death in the world for several decades, it is still relevant in the development of new methods of diagnosis and treatment in the study of both of its treatment and research methods. Cardiac surgery is the main method of treatment, so it is necessary to develop the optimal methods of preoperative myocardial functional diagnostics to get information about the need for surgical intervention and evaluation of it’s results. Nowadays various echocardiographic techniques can be used for identifying heart diseases. Standard echocardiographic exam or stress-echo using the apical position of the probe and utilization of tissue Doppler mode have a number of limitations associated with the peculiarities of assessing the mechanics of the heart muscle and the inevitable loss of information about some segments of the myocardium. The speckle-tracking echocardiography technology allows the most accurate estimation of both early ischemic changes and the viability of individual myocardial segments after a heart attack. Currently, 2D and 3D spackle-tracking echocardiography successfully complements stress echocardiography for more objective and accurate detection of viable heart muscle fibers. This review provides a definition of the speckle-tracking echocardiography concept, gives its main characteristics, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this research method.