Demystifying three-dimensional echocardiography: Keeping it simple for the sonographer

Three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) is a new echocardiographic tool that enables echocardiographers visualization of cardiac structures from any anatomical view. Furthermore, the recent development of new transducer technology and software allows the easy acquisition and analysis of datasets for sonographers. A few common applications of 3DE consist of the left and right ventricle for chamber quantification, mitral valve stenosis and regurgitation assessment, and the guidance of catheter placement during interventional procedures. Despite current literature illustrating the importance of 3DE, it fails to demonstrate how to acquire 3D datasets from the sonographer's perspective. Understanding 3DE data acquisition technique and applications are paramount to implement it as standard of care. Acquisition of 3DE should be accomplished in three steps (1) optimization, (2) acquisition, and (3) cropping of 3D images.