[Non-invasive diagnostic procedures for heart failure: echocardiography, myocardial perfusion scintigraphy and radionuclide ventriculography].

Even though the diagnosis of heart failure can often be made at bedside from the patient's history and a thorough physical examination, some mechanical examinations are needed to objectify the clinical symptoms. Due to the chronic and progressive character of heart failure with repeated periods of clinical treatment, non-invasive and reproducible methods are of great importance. Thanks to technical progress in data-acquisition and -processing, echocardiography has become one of the most important diagnostic tools in clinical cardiology. Many questions associated with the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure can be answered with the aid of the wide spectrum of echocardiography, including morphological description in conventional M- or B-Mode and functional analysis based on Dopplertechnique. On the other hand well-established nuclear techniques like myocardial perfusion scintigraphy and radionuclide ventriculography profit from recent technical development. In addition, the modification, specification and standardisation of examination protocols improve the diagnostic reliability of nuclear medical techniques. Performed by a specialist, both principles of examination--ultrasound and scintigraphy--are valid in the diagnosis of heart failure and in therapy-management.