Traditionally, LVEF has been assessed by two-dimensional
echocardiography, multiple-gated acquisition scan and cardiac MRI (Table 1). A drawback of
monitoring patients by frequent multiple-gated
acquisition scans is the exposure to increased radiation.
There is no radiation exposure with echocardiography.
However, subtle changes in LVEF may be
missed by two-dimensional echocardiography
because of poor image quality or lack of endocardial
border definition. A three-dimensional echocardiography
has a better discriminatory ability than twodimensional
echocardiography