Michael H. Picard • Jonathan J. Passeri
Jacob P. Dal-Bianco
Editors

2016

While many forms of non-invasive cardiac imaging have been used in association with cardiac procedures for many years, their use gained prominence in the mid-1980s when transthoracic echocardiography became an important component of the percutaneous mitral valvotomy procedure, especially to identify appropriate patients for this procedure. Soon thereafter, the use of transesophageal echocardiography to exclude left atrial thrombus was shown to be a valuable procedure enabling safe DC cardioversion without the need to wait for weeks of precardioversion therapeutic anticoagulation.