Use and Implications of Echocardiography in the Hemodynamic Assessment of Cardiogenic Shock

Cardiogenic shock (CS) is a complex multisys-tem syndrome due to pump failure, associated with high mortality and morbidity. Its hemodynamic characteriza-tion is key to the diagnostic algorithm and management. Pulmonary artery catheterization is the gold standard for the left and right hemodynamic evaluation, but some concerns exist for invasivity and untoward mechanical and infective complications. Transthoracic echocardiog-raphy is a robust noninvasive diagnostic tool for hemody-namic multiparametric assessment that well applies to the management of CS. Its applications expand from eti-ology definition to the choice of therapeutic intervention and their monitoring. The present review aims at detail-ing the role of ultrasounds in CS emphasizing the clinical implications of combining cardiac and non-cardiac ultra-sounds examinations that may correlate with prognosis.