Utility of Echocardiography in Hypotension in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

A prospective study was performed on the utility of echocardiography in diagnosing hypotension in critically ill patients. In our study, we found that transthoracic echocardiography can help physicians determine the etiology of hypotension in a significant number of patients. Transesophageal echocardiography is useful when results obtained from transthoracic echocardiography are suboptimal. Left ventricular function assessed by echocardiography can be used to predict 30-day mortality.

Keywords:

• hypotension
• echocardiography
• transthoracic echocardiography
• transesophageal echocardiography