REVIEW   

Minerva Medica 2018 February;109(1):31-40

DOI: 10.23736/S0026-4806.17.05311-3

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Optimizing the role of transthoracic echocardiography to improve the cardiovascular risk stratification: the dream of subclinical coronary artery disease detection

Giovanni BENFARI ¹ ✉, Andrea ROSSI ¹, Giulia GEREMIA ¹, Giulia VINCO ¹, Carlo ZIVELONGHI ¹, Aldo D. MILANO ², Leonardo GOTTIN ³, Flavio L. RIBICHINI ¹, Francesco ONORATI ², Giuseppe FAGGIAN ²

¹ Section of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; ² Division of Cardiac Surgery, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; ³ Division of Cardiac Anesthesiology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Detecting coronary artery disease at a subclinical level has always been a challenging task for cardiologists. Various non-invasive echocardiographic approaches such as measurements of left ventricular hypertrophy, diastolic function, left atrial enlargement, valve sclerosis and calcification, epicardial fat thickness, and pulse wave velocity have been proposed to integrate the available risk-charts. The present review is a collection of evidence that supports the role of the above mentioned features in cardiac risk stratification, summarizing the state of the art in non-invasive echocardiographic coronary risk assessment. Each parameter is presented with its strengths and weaknesses, aiming to trace the future directions for the development of a reliable non-invasive approach.

KEY WORDS: Echocardiography - Coronary artery disease - Diagnosis