Definitions
This section is dedicated to technical aspects of deformation imaging (theroretical background and “how to” manual).
Introduction
In this section I will briefly describe
1) the most common definitions encountered in this technique,
2) a basic understanding of the background of this technique required for routine clinical use including normal values,
3) a how-to section where a step-by-step guide with illustrative figures and movies is provided
4) A section dedicated to “reading the deformation graph”, illustrated by several examples.
5) Common artefacts and pitfalls
This section (or any other part of this website) will neither go into detail on the technical background of deformation imaging, nor the basics of ultrasound. I aim to provide the basics of this technique I think is fundamental for image acquisition, post-processing, and interpretation. This has been done by others, and is also freely available online. For this, I would like to redirect the reader and/or researcher to stoylen-website. This website includes a vast amount of information on ultrasound physics.
Finally, there are typically more features available in the software packages then I describe in the following section, most have to do with optimizing or customizing the visual output of the results (such as scale, baseline, etc). I encourage the reader to experiment with these once her/she becomes confident with the basics. Let this section guide you through the first steps in deformation analysis. It might seems a bit overwhelming at fist. Don’t let this temper your enthusiasm. The best way to master this technique is to practice, practice, practice with the basic understanding of physics and this document. The additional diagnostic and prognostic information by deformation imaging in the echocardiographic examination is frequently pivoting in equivocal cases. Your patients will thank you for this!