Intracardiac and intravascular echocardiography
Intracardiac echocardiography is a relatively new echocardiographic technique, essentially used for monitoring of percutaneous atrial septal defect closure procedures and for electrophysiological catheter-based ablations. It is still limited to a few experienced centres, but presents with several advantages, including the safe guidance of percutaneous interventional treatments, avoidance of general anaesthesia, and reduction in radiation exposure. Intracardiac echocardiography is likely to be more and more used, with the development of new catheter interventional procedures. This chapter discusses the principles, methods, and main indications for intracardiac echocardiography in monitoring and guidance of interventional procedures as well as new developments and its cost-benefit ratio.