Eugenio Picano JACC 2003;42:454-457 The hypothetical echocardiographic cascade of diabetic cardiomyopathy. Metabolic changes (non-enzymatic glycation?) cause an early structural alteration (with inappropriate accumulation of myocardial connective tissue?), which induces subclinical disturbances: variation in regional echodensity, blunted cyclic gray level variation, alterations in diastolic function, alterations in systolic function, reduced coronary flow reserve, reduction of inotropic reserve, and finally, the onset of resting wall motion abnormalities—regional at first and global at a later stage. Only at this latter stage, the clinically overt manifestations of diabetic cardiomyopathy appear. Each of these variables is detected by its specific ultrasound technology. Myocardial structural alterations can be detected with tissue characterization; diastolic and systolic abnormalities by tissue Doppler imaging; coronary flow reserve with transthoracic Doppler flowmetry of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD); inotropic reserve reduction by stress echo; and regional dyssynergies by resting two-dimensional (2D) echo. Eugenio Picano JACC 2003;42:454-457 American College of Cardiology Foundation