Our study revealed that prone CPR provides good respiratory and circulatory support at the same time. It is easy to perform and it may be a good alternative way for bystanders to perform CPR in public surroundings. We recommend that more investigators do further studies on this topic.

Live 3D TEE allows more sensitivity and was feasible identification of prolapse or flail of individual segments of MV leaflets during surgery. We conclude that live 3D TEE should be regarded as an important adjunct to the standard 2D TEE examination in making decisions about MV surgery.

No abstract

Post-caesarean pulmonary embolism (PE) is associated with significant peri-operative morbidity and mortality. This report describes a case of sudden cardiac arrest 2 days post-caesarean due to massive PE diagnosed via bedside transesophageal echocardiography (TEE). Recognition of the PE at the bifurcation of the right and left pulmonary arteries was achieved by real-time three-dimensional TEE, but not two-dimensional TEE. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was immediately established and emergent pulmonary thromboembolectomy was performed. The patient was discharged without residual deficits on Day 22 of hospitalization.

We studied 19 patients with pericardial disease using two-dimensional and three-dimensional transthorathic echocardiography (2DTTE and 3DTTE, respectively) in order to determine whether 3DTTE provides incremental value on top of 2DTTE in the evaluation of these patients. With 3DTTE a more comprehensive assessment of pericardial effusion can be made and both the parietal and visceral layers of the pericardium can be visualized en face and examined for pathologies and fibrin deposits. In our series of patients, 3DTTE was superior to 2DTTE in uncovering mass lesions involving the pericardium such as tuberculous granulomas and metastatic disease. Furthermore, it provided a better assessment of the nature of pericardial lesions, such as pericardial and mediastinal hematomas, pericardial cysts, and metastatic disease to the pericardium by sequential cropping of the 3D data sets and visualizing the interior of the lesions in a manner not possible with 2DTTE. It was also valuable in determining the extent of pericardial calcification in pericardial constriction and in measuring the size of pericardial masses. These preliminary results suggest the superiority of 3DTTE over 2DTTE in the evaluation of pericardial diseases and that it provides incremental knowledge to the echocardiographer.