| Description: |
According to the most recent report issued by the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States. Among cardiovascular diseases, coronary artery disease, which can cause, for instance, myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction (or, a heart attack), accounts for 52 % of the death toll. This underscores the urgent need and the critical role that a non-invasive, efficient and reliable imaging technique can play in the early diagnosis of coronary artery disease. Echocardiography, namely cardiac ultrasound, has been extensively used in the clinic to evaluate both structural and functional changes of the heart due to its advantages of widespread availability, real-time capability, non-ionizing modality, low cost, portability and compatibility with pacemakers over other imaging modalities. The fact that abnormal myocardial motion and deformation (i.e., strain) is associated with coronary artery disease that leads to insufficient coronary blood and oxygen supply to the cardiac muscle (i.e., supply-type myocardial ischemia), has been well documented. Therefore, assessing myocardial motion and deformation may be the key to the detection of myocardial ischemia due to coronary artery disease. |