Cardiac anatomy viewed systematically with two dimensional echocardiography.

The details of three-dimensional cardiac anatomy are complex, and structure recognition is difficult in tomograms produced with recently developed two-dimensional ultrasonic sector scanners. This article presents a method we have found useful for systematic inclusion of most cardiac structures during such echocardiographic examinations. Orthogonal planes, aligned parallel and perpendicular to the long or major left ventricular axis, are obtained from each of three transducer positions on the body surface. Moving this X-Y image plane through the heart perpendicular to the plane (z axis) allows the viewer to integrate the images into a mental picture of the whole structure. The illustrations are oriented as they are displayed by ultrasonic sector scanners so they aid rapid recognition of cardiac structures.