• Darren Klugman and John T Berger.
• Department of Critical Care Medicine and Cardiology, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. DKlugman@cnmc.org
• Pediatr Crit Care Me. 2011 Jul 1;12(4 Suppl):S50-4.

AbstractEchocardiography is a widely used modality to assess myocardial structure and function in pediatric intensive care settings. While the use of echocardiography for diagnostic purposes remains important, its use as a hemodynamic monitoring tool has not been well established. The benefits of echocardiography are in its widespread availability, relative ease of use, and importance in diagnosing structural disease and simple changes in myocardial function. However, echocardiography in pediatric critical care is limited in its use because it requires the acquisition of quality images and the accurate interpretation of the study. To date, the literature on echocardiography in pediatric critical care is limited. The purpose of this review is to examine the scientific evidence for the usefulness of echocardiography as a hemodynamic monitoring tool in pediatric critical care.

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