Assessment of left ventricular systolic function

Description

The most common and quickest assessments made using echocardiography, either in the intraoperative or intensive care setting, are the left ventricular chamber size and its contractile or systolic function. Left ventricle (LV), being the pressure generator for the blood supply to the body, is endowed with a chamber which has thick myocardial walls. LV chamber does not exactly match any measurable geometric shape, and in a healthy heart, it may resemble an elongated ellipse with a conical apex. In diseased states, the shape may change globally or regionally, and this nonconformity of shape, both in healthy and diseased condition, is the primary reason for the difficulty in measuring its volume or volume surrogates during different phases of cardiac cycle using echocardiography. This presentation deals with the assessment of left ventricular systolic function.