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Imaging modality-independent anatomy of the left heart: implications for left-sided transcatheter interventions

Interventional cardiologists have traditionally relied upon fluoroscopic imaging for percutaneous coronary interventions. Transcatheter structural heart interventions, however, require additional imaging modalities such as echocardiography and multislice computed tomography (MSCT) for pre-, intra- and post-procedural assistance. During transcatheter structural heart interventions, interventional cardiologists and non-invasive cardiovascular imagers may use different terminologies to describe a certain structure, thus causing misunderstandings within the team. Herein, we present a modality- independent terminology for understanding volumetric images in the context of transcatheter heart valve therapies. The goal of this system is to allow physicians to readily interpret the orientation of fluoroscopic, MSCT, echocardiographic and MRI images, thus generalising their understanding of cardiac anatomy to all imaging modalities.