Focused Cardiac Ultrasound (FCU) is a point-of-care, targeted echocardiographic examination used to rapidly assess cardiac structure and function in emergency and non-specialist settings. It is not intended to replace comprehensive echocardiography, but to serve as a diagnostic adjunct to the physical examination. FCU allows the identification of clinically significant cardiac abnormalities such as pericardial effusion, severe myocardial dysfunction and marked atrial enlargement, and it can be applied in dogs and cats. This session discusses the basic principles of FCU, its main clinical applications, standard technique and projections, and the recognition of key pathologies that may require urgent intervention or referral. 

Key Learning Objectives:

• The participant is aware of the required equipment, principles and technique used to perform a focused cardiac ultrasound.
• The participant can recognize the most used projections in the focused cardiac ultrasound protocol.
• The participant can identify severe cardiac pathologies in the images showed.