Echocardiography Board Review Exam Preparation – Mock Exam

The Echocardiography Board Review is written for the primary purpose of helping candidates prepare for the National Board of Echocardiography and should be helpful both to the cardiologists and anesthesiologists preparing for this certification process. The authors have used this format in teaching echocardiography to cardiology fellows in training. One of the main impetuses for initiating this work was the request by many of the trainees and prospective echocardiography examination candidates to write such material. Similar requests have also come from echocardiography technicians preparing for their certification examination. There are 100+ well-thought-out questions in this review. The questions address practically all areas of echocardiography including applied ultrasound physics, practical hydrodynamics, imaging techniques, valvular heart disease, myocardial diseases, congenital heart disease, noninvasive hemodynamics, surgical echocardiography, etc.

Each question is followed by several answers to choose from. The discussion addresses not only the rationale behind picking the right choice but fills in information about the topic under discussion such that important key concepts are clearly driven. This would not only help in the preparation for the examinations but also give a clear understanding of various echocardiographic techniques, applications, and the disease processes they address.

This review would be helpful not only to the prospective examinees in echocardiography but to all students of echocardiography in training, not only in cardiology and anesthesia training programs in this country but internationally as well. This does not take the place of a standard textbook of echocardiography but complements the textbook reading by bringing out the salient concepts in a clear fashion.

The questions on applied physics, quantitative Doppler, and images are of particular value. We feel this test will meet the need felt by students of echocardiography in not only preparing for examinations but clearly enhancing the understanding of the subject in an easy-to-read manner. The authors are grateful to many of the trainees who expressed the need for such work and pressured us to write one.