http://www.echobasics.de/tte-en.html

Normal chamber sizes / wall thickness in the average adult are as follows:

• Internal diameter LV (in diastole) 3.5-5.7cm (4-6cm roughly)
• Internal diameter RV diameter (in diastole) 0.9-2.6cm (1-3cm roughly)
• RV diameter < 0.6 x LV diameter
• LV wall / IV septum in `diastole <1.1cm (note that walls should thicken by about 50% in systole)
• RV free wall < 0.6cm in diastole
• Internal diameter of LA, RA & Ao root each < 4cm

What BASIC echo can tell you in a critically ill patient:

Hypovolaemia

Small LV, hyperdynamic with systolic obliteration of the chamber – the so-called ‘kissing ventricle’.

Tamponade

The diagnosis of cardiac tamponade requires not just an effusion but also:

• A shocked patient (tamponade is a clinical diagnosis)
• The demonstration of tamponade physiology, either clinically or sonographically - such as IVC dilation and diastolic RA or RV collapse.

LV Function

A gross qualitative assessment of LV function can be made by visual inspection of:

• LV wall thickening in systole (if it doesn’t thicken, it’s abnormal)
• Relative shrinking of the LV chamber in systole (that’s the ejection fraction*);
• Systolic excursion (up-down movement) of the mitral annulus on the four chamber view;