Cardiac Mechanics I: 3D Speckle Tracking Echocardiography

In the past years several innovations were presented in cardiac imaging. In echocardiography, two paradigm changes were introduced that have been incorporated in clinical practice: the quantification of myocardial deformation to assess cardiac mechanics and the ability to extend the imaging field of view to three dimensions. Both deformation quantification (through (speckle tracking) strain imaging) and three-dimensional (3D) imaging have been extensively investigated in clinical cardiology and their use in (adult) congenital heart disease (CHD) broadly documented.