Proceedings: Echocardiology.

Any technique which allows "a look inside the body" without being invasive, affords major diagnostic possibilities. The application of ultrasound offers this possibility now. The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of this relatively new diagnostic method for the detection and quantification of many cardiac disorders and to outline its usefulness. It may be said that echocardiology offers "the ideal diagnostic method" of the future, particularly when one considers the low cost-benefit ratio in comparison with other diagnostic methods such as angiocardiography.