Echo: Left ventricular systolic function

The team at Medmastery are providing LITFL readers with a series of FOAMed courses from across their website.

Today, we explore the Echocardiography Essentials course with a video on how to recognize normal, hyperkinetic and hypokinetic function of the left ventricle with the help of transthoracic echo. Assessing left ventricular global systolic function, left ventricular dysfunction, cardiomyopathy and cardiac decompensation.

I am a Consultant Cardiac Physiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust in London, where I perform, teach, and research echocardiography. I am firm believer of the need to simplify the interpretation and reporting of echocardiography—my approach, refined through years of experience, is one that I am passionate about sharing with everyone who’s eager to learn.