Functional echocardiography (f echo) in nicu a need for the hour- a bird’s view

Tremendous improvement in the neonatal care has led to the reduction in the mortality and morbidity of babies born below 30 weeks of gestation. Evidence based management, Expertise in the newborn care and the exponential growth of equipments have led are mark able role in the survival of tinysick babies. Most of NICUs depend upon urine output, capillary refilling time, blood gas analysis in judging baby hemodynamic ally, however sensitivity and specificity of these parameters are reasonably less. Hence longitudinal assessment of baby’s physiology is very crucial for the better acute and long term outcome. In this direction functional echocardiography has been evolved as an added entity to physical examination in the care of sick babies. Hence systematic serial studies in the NICU by f ECHO by neonatologist is very crucial and need of the hour.1