I have always wondered if reading a textbook is the best way to learn and understand clinical echocardiography. This is because echocardiography is a technique which looks at the heart in motion, and it is very challenging to appreciate the morphological and functional changes of the heart structures during the cardiac cycle from still pictures. However, after having seen the textbook “Ecocardiografia Doppler” by Dr. Bogdan A. Popescu and Prof. Carmen Ginghina, I have found the answer. Not all textbooks about echocardiography are the same, and “Ecocardiografia Doppler” is a worthwhile read.

“Ecocardiografia Doppler” is one of the few books dedicated to the Doppler technique, a method that we use in every single patient and is available on any echo machine. Proper and intelligent use of this technique (as demonstrated in this book) provides a lot of information about cardiac physiology and pathology that can be used to make a correct diagnosis, assess the severity of a cardiac disorder and/or address management of patients in a non-invasive and cost-effective way. In addition, Doppler is a technique mainly based on interpretation of spectral tracings which do not lose their informative content when displayed as pictures. Moreover, when Doppler tracings are prospectively collected and carefully selected to demonstrate various concepts, as in “Ecocardiografia Doppler, the reader can  actually feel the experience, the knowledge, and also the passion for echocardiography of the Authors.  

In addition “Ecocardiografia Doppler” is not only a book, but it is the product of a School of echocardiography. The Authors are all cardiologists from the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases “Prof Dr CC Iliescu”. The technical editor of the book and of the accompanying DVD is also a young cardiologist from the same Institute. The depth and the breadth of the topics covered in the 422 richly-illustrated pages of this textbook are extraordinary.Appreciating the care the Authors put in selecting the 1300 pictures, 140 drawings and 200 movies one feels that they have not taken  just one tracing of a mitral stenosis, but they have looked for that specific tracing illustrating that particular concept in mitral stenosis, as well as the various degrees of regurgitation or atrio-ventricular block, ecc. This does not happen by chance, but it reflects knowledge, commitment, and passion, which  are the result of a School able to provide high standards of technical and theoretical education and also to transmit the love for a well-done job. The Authors - the mentors as well as the youngest - are to be congratulated for that.

The book is enriched by a DVD which contains 200 color and tissue-Doppler high-quality movies. I would like to recommend in particular the “technical” sections dedicated to demonstrate how to get the proper echocardiographic views and to acquire correct Doppler tracings. This is something original and very useful for the beginners, as well as for the experts.

Finally, “Ecocardiografia Doppler” is a high-quality educational product, and the Editors and the Authors should be proud of it. We can only thank them for the time and efforts they have devoted to provide us such an outstanding textbook.

Luigi P. Badano
President of the European Association of Echocardiography