Cardiac Ultrasound

The department performs cardiovascular ultrasound examinations for all outpatients, emergency patients, and inpatients throughout the hospital. It routinely provides transthoracic echocardiographic diagnosis of valvular heart disease, congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, cardiac tumors, and pericardial disease, as well as ultrasound diagnosis of congenital heart disease in fetuses. It provides three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiographic monitoring during procedures using cardiopulmonary bypass and intraoperative ultrasound guidance for various minimally invasive cardiac surgeries, including closure procedures for atrial septal defects, ventricular septal defects, and patent ductus arteriosus associated with congenital heart disease; transfemoral or transapical transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR); left atrial appendage occlusion; and closure of patent foramen ovale, among others. The department is actively developing new technologies, including three-dimensional cardiac reconstruction, three-dimensional analysis of ventricular wall motion, assessment of left ventricular motion synchrony, contrast echocardiography, and pediatric coronary ultrasonography. In southern Liaoning, it was the first department to introduce painless transesophageal echocardiography, closure of atrial septal defects under ultrasound guidance alone, one-stop diagnosis and treatment of patent foramen ovale, quantitative assessment of cardiac valves, and monitoring of cardiotoxicity caused by cancer chemoradiotherapy, among other distinctive services, earning unanimous recognition from peers. The department performs bedside cardiopulmonary function assessments in the adult and neonatal intensive care units throughout the hospital; hemodynamic assessments for heart transplantation and of mechanical assist devices such as ECMO and IABP; and participates in consultations for the treatment and rescue of critically ill patients throughout the hospital.

The department currently has one doctoral supervisor, two master's supervisors, and one specially appointed expert, and undertakes teaching at multiple levels for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It has led one National Natural Science Foundation of China Young Scientists Fund project, two Liaoning Provincial Natural Science Foundation projects, one Liaoning Provincial undergraduate education reform project, and two university-level education reform projects; received one second prize in the Liaoning Provincial Science and Technology Progress Awards, one first prize in the Dalian Science and Technology Progress Awards, one first prize in the Liaoning Provincial Department of Education's General Higher Education Teaching Achievement Awards in the postgraduate category, one third prize in the undergraduate category, one first prize in the Liaoning Provincial Excellent Open Course Awards, and one second prize and one third prize in the National University Medical Microlecture Teaching Competition; and contributed to three planned textbooks published by People's Medical Publishing House and Higher Education Press. It has participated in one national multicenter clinical research study and published dozens of papers in SCI-indexed and Chinese core journals.