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Figure 1 Artists drawing illustrating transducer beam orientations to the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) (A, B, F, H) with the corresponding echocardiographic images of LAD color flow (CE, G, I): in particular panels A and B indicate tomographic plane orientation for attaining, respectively, a parasternal short- and long-axis view of the distal LAD. Color flow visualized with this approach is represented in panels C, D (short-axis views of color flow) and E (long-axis view of color flow); panel F indicates the transducer orientation for a more apical approach still for the distal LAD (color flow visualized with this approach is represented in panel G); panel H is the tomographic orientation for the visualization of the midtract of the LAD (color flow visualized with this approach is represented in panel I). AO = aorta; CF = color flow; LA = left atrium; LV = left ventricle; MV = mitral valve; RA = right atrium; RV = right ventricle; RVOT = right ventricular outflow tract; SVC = superior vena cava.