Intracardiac Echocardiography: Evolution, Recent Advances, and Current Applications

he Recent developments in transcatheter procedures and interventions were made possible thanks to the ability to image the heart and guide the operator in real time. Intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) is an imaging modality that provides the operator direct visualization of cardiac structures. Recent developments and improvements in ICE technology further refined this modality and broaden its use to include small adults and children. In this review, I discuss the evolution of ICE over time and the technical details of the currently available catheter. I also provide a comparison between ICE and other available imaging modalities and present current and future applications of this technology.