2025/08/19 by Ike, S. O.
paper · doi:10.82235/wajr.vol10no1.135
This study evaluated our experience with echocardiographic studies over a period of 10 years (February 1991 to January 2001). Two thousand five hundred and twenty seven patients (1577 males, 950 females), aged between 3 weeks to 85, years were referred for echocardiography at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu. The commonest indications for echocardiography were found to be Valvular Heart Diseases (16%), Hypertensive Heart Disease (15%) and Congenital Heart Diseases (14.3%). Echocardiography was able to confirm 868 (34.4%) of Valvular Heart Diseases (n = 868), 436 (17.3%) Hypertensive heart Diseases, (13.2%) Congenital Heart Diseases and Cardiomyopathies 237(9.5%). Normal studies were documented in 275(10.9%) of the patients. The functional states of prosthetic valves as well as the position of pacemakers were some of the clinical usefulness of echocardio-graphic studies documented by the study. More accurate diagnoses and influencing the direction of management were definitely the outcomes of the echocardiographic studies of these patients. The principles, types and newer developments in echocardiography, as a noninvasive imaging technique, are also discussed in this paper.