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Contact: Natalie Costantino
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ASE Releases New Guidelines on Echocardiographic Assessment of the Right Heart in Adults

(DURHAM, NC, March 6, 2025)—A new guideline from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) offers updated recommendations for clinicians evaluating right heart function in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH), a condition that significantly affects patient outcomes, morbidity, and mortality.

Guidelines for Echocardiographic Assessment of the Right Heart in Adults and Special Considerations in Pulmonary Hypertension: Recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography is published in the March 2025 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography and supersedes ASE’s right heart guideline published in 2010. This new document emphasizes the critical importance of accurate right heart assessment in the management of PH, which is a key factor in determining clinical prognosis and guiding treatment strategies.

The guideline’s Chair Dr. Monica Mukherjee, who is a cardiologist and the Medical Director of Johns Hopkins Bayview Echocardiography Lab in Baltimore, Md., said this document represents a crucial step forward in the echocardiographic assessment of the right heart in PH. It ensures clinicians and sonographers have the most precise and validated parameters to improve screening and early detection in patients.

“These guidelines have the potential to significantly impact patient care by standardizing and refining echocardiographic assessment of the right heart by focusing on screening and early detection, and improved risk stratification and monitoring of therapeutic response,” said Dr. Mukherjee. “By integrating comprehensive echocardiography techniques and employing updated diagnostic thresholds, we hope to enhance the accuracy of PH evaluation and ultimately guide more precise therapeutic decisions to improve patient outcomes.”

The World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension recently redefined PH as a mean pulmonary arterial pressure >20 mmHg, based on epidemiologic evidence highlighting the significant impact of even mildly elevated mean pulmonary artery pressure on morbidity and mortality. The implementation of these new standards will enhance clinical decision-making and foster greater consistency in clinical research applications.

An international multidisciplinary team assisted in developing the guidelines, including expert sonographers and other leading authorities in echocardiography, multimodality imaging, cardiology and PH. The writing group brings expertise in right heart physiology and pulmonary vascular disease, and defines key imaging metrics. This ensures that the document is comprehensive, evidence-based, and clinically impactful.

“By leveraging our collaborative expertise across these specialties, we hoped to provide a unified, physiologically informed framework for assessing right heart function and refining risk stratification based on reproducible echocardiographic parameters that align with disease pathophysiology,” said Guideline Co-Chair, Dr. Lawrence Rudski, the Director of the Azrieli Heart Centre at Jewish General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The complete guideline document and all guidelines published by ASE are available at ASEcho.org/Guidelines.

About American Society of Echocardiography
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals™. ASE is the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging serving physicians, sonographers, nurses, veterinarians, and scientists and as such is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. The Society is committed to advancing cardiovascular ultrasound to improve lives. In 2025, ASE is celebrating its milestone 50^th anniversary.  For more information, visit the ASE website ASEcho.org or social media pages on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky.

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The latest issue of CASE is now available with intriguing reports, including “Patent Foramen Ovale With Asymmetric Pulmonary Venous Flow Reversal.”

CASE Editor-in-Chief Vincent Sorrell, MD, FASE, remarked, “Every issue of CASE offers readers an opportunity to discover novel insights into commonly seen echo-truths that in fact, turn out to be less specific than initially thought. Take for example the report from Wright et al., which discusses their finding of reversal of the systolic pulmonary vein flow seen with pulsed wave Doppler. The patient did not have mitral regurgitation as the mechanism for this finding, but instead, had an intermittently significant shunt across a PFO. The authors describe their Doppler finding, the literature surrounding the underlying proposed mechanisms, and the clinical correlations. Within their descriptions, they include the possibility that significant left to right shunts may cause a similar systolic flow reversal in the pulmonary vein. In their patient, the PFO flow was minimal at baseline but increased dramatically during deep inspiration. This phasic PFO flow was noted to directly coincide with the phasic pulmonary vein systolic reversal, leading to these authors’ conclusion and helping CASE readers build their differential diagnosis of this finding. They suspect that intermittent increases in LA volume and pressure, similar to previous reports with ASD, were driving this Doppler phenomenon. It is exciting to ponder what our amazing Journal readers will see tomorrow that will inform us to be better stewards of echocardiography.”

In addition to this Hemodynamic Corner report, this issue features some cases in the Rare But Deadly Findings and Sonographer Spotlight categories. Menon et al. highlight the importance of serial echo in their report on an infant with Kawasaki Disease, whose condition rapidly progresses in wake of early detection and available treatment. Aleem et al. utilize targeted neonatal echo in a critically ill neonate, evaluating cardiac function, ECMO cannulation, and development of a deadly coronary thrombus. Notably, this issue features two reports selected from our recent Sonographer Challenge—a report on caval valve implantation as an innovative approach for treating severe tricuspid regurgitation, and a report of preliminary findings on the use of an agitated saline delivery device in daily clinical practice.

Readers can look forward to Dr. Sorrell’s editorial, which dissects the vital role of contrast in diagnostic imaging. Be sure to check out the latest Unlock the CASE on the CASE homepage, which was the winning entry from the Cardio-oncology SIG Case Competition.

SUBMIT your case report to us! Whether it will be your first time submitting a case or your 50^th, we are here to make it a great experience. Email us with questions or submit your report today!

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Contact: Natalie Costantino
919-297-7170
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ASE Publishes Updated Guideline Offering Comprehensive, Evidence-Based Recommendations on Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Procedures

(DURHAM, NC, February 6, 2025)—A new guideline from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) aims to provide more detail for clinicians performing ultrasound-guided vascular cannulation, an essential skill utilized across various cardiovascular ultrasound specialties during diagnostic and medical procedures.

Guidelines for Performing Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Cannulation: Recommendations of the American Society of Echocardiography is published in the February 2025 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography and replaces the original guideline published by the Society on this topic in 2011. This new document provides expert consensus on the best practices and techniques for using ultrasound in vascular access procedures.

“Ultrasound guidance is currently not a standard of care for all vascular access, but it is becoming increasingly common in daily clinical practice due to its ability to enhance success rates and reduce complications,” says lead Co-author Dr. Annette Vegas, an anesthesiologist and director of Perioperative Echocardiography at Toronto General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. “Adopting the recommendations in this guideline will help clinicians better minimize risks, maximize technical competencies and ultimately, improve patient outcomes.

The guideline uses descriptions, diagrams and ultrasound images to explain the general aspects of anatomic and ultrasound imaging of vessels, ultrasound-guided vascular cannulation techniques, and the identification of local vascular cannulation complications. Additionally, it emphasizes the fundamental roles of ultrasound during vascular access, including:

1. Precannulation Vessel Assessment
2. Dynamic Ultrasound Guidance
3. Identification of Local Complications

The authors say this guideline will serve as a valuable resource for new and experienced clinicians, helping them deliver safer, more effective care. This document and all guidelines published by ASE are available at ASEcho.org/Guidelines.

About American Society of Echocardiography
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals™. ASE is the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging serving physicians, sonographers, nurses, veterinarians, and scientists and as such is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. The Society is committed to advancing cardiovascular ultrasound to improve lives. In 2025, ASE is celebrating its milestone 50^th anniversary.  For more information, visit the ASE website ASEcho.org or social media pages on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and Bluesky.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Natalie Costantino
919-297-7170
[email protected]

American Society of Echocardiography and its Foundation Award $100,000 in Grant Funding to Early Career Investigators in Cardiovascular Imaging

(DURHAM, NC, Jan. 30, 2025)—The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) and the ASE Foundation have awarded grant funding totaling $100,000 to fund four innovative cardiovascular ultrasound research projects led by early career investigators.

The Society’s EDGES (Early-Career Development Grant for Echo Scientists) program funds projects that address clinical gaps in cardiovascular ultrasound through research directed by an early career scientist or investigator.

The four 2024 EDGES recipients, each awarded a $25,000 grant, will conduct studies addressing a wide range of research projects.

• Sae Jang, MD, a clinical instructor and National Institutes of Health T32 research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Cardiology in Pennsylvania, will investigate if microbubbles and ultrasound can be developed as a diagnostic tool for early capillary structural changes in patients with microvascular disease.
• James MacNamara, MD, MSCS, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, will utilize the grant to better understand the limitations to exercise in patients with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and how these patients respond to therapies.
• David McNamara, MD, MPH, a non-invasive, board-certified cardiologist at Corewell Health in Grand Rapids, Mich., will research radiation safety during structural heart procedures and the role of radiation protection devices in clinical practice, specifically for interventional echocardiographers.
• Minh Nguyen, MD, FASE, a pediatric cardiologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, secured the funding to develop a foundation model on pediatric echocardiograms to predict adverse events in pediatric HCM.

ASE Past President and Chair of the Society’s Research Committee Jonathan Lindner, MD, FASE, shared why this funding is important for the field.

“The EDGES program represents a tremendous investment by ASE in the future of imaging research. These grants fill a major gap by supporting early career imaging scientists during a critical stage of their development by providing resources to pursue their own idea,” said Dr. Lindner. “We look forward to seeing how the EDGES recipients leverage their grants to obtain further national funding and hearing about the impact of EDGES on the upward trajectory of tomorrow’s research leaders.”

ASE developed the EDGES research program in 2023 to create an avenue for the continued evolution of cardiovascular ultrasound. The program’s initial three recipients were each awarded $25,000 to fund artificial intelligence and technology-focused research projects. ASE plans to offer its EDGES grants annually to support technical advancements and new applications of echocardiography.

Learn more about these grants and the recipients at ASEFoundation.org/Research.

About American Society of Echocardiography
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is the Society for Cardiovascular Ultrasound Professionals™. ASE is the largest global organization for cardiovascular ultrasound imaging serving physicians, sonographers, nurses, veterinarians, and scientists and as such is the leader and advocate, setting practice standards and guidelines for the field. In 2025, ASE is celebrating its milestone 50^th anniversary. The Society is committed to advancing cardiovascular ultrasound to improve lives. For more information, visit the ASE website ASEcho.org or social media accounts on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, or Bluesky.

About American Society of Echocardiography Foundation
The ASE Foundation (ASEF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation created in 2003 as ASE’s charitable arm. The Foundation helps to assure the viability and visibility of cardiovascular ultrasound. Dependent upon donor giving not supported by membership dues, ASEF funds initiatives such as training scholarships, guidelines-based projects, research, patient engagement, and global health outreach. For more information, visit the ASEF website ASEFoundation.org.

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