The best of 2005 in echocardiography back from EuroEcho 9--Florence, Italy

Abstract The ninth edition of the congress of the European Association of Echocardiography (EAE) (former working group of Echocardiography) held in Florence has just finished with a great success of participant attendance (2.842) and abstract submissions. Hot topics at EuroEcho 9 were: 1--live 3-dimensional echocardiography and surgical decision making; in pediatric cardiology; in resynchronization therapy 2--stress echocardiography beyond wall motion: from valve diseases to contractility to coronary flow reserve to diastolic function; 3--pulmonary cardiogenic interstitial thickening recognized by ultrasonic lung comets; 4--the "proven clinical inefficacy" of the many technologies sold as breakthrough: color kinesis, tissue characterization, strain rate, tissue Doppler, applied to stress echocardiography.