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What Is Echocardiography?

Echocardiography is a type of diagnostic test that uses sound waves to generate images of the heart. In its basic form, it is a non-invasive test that detects certain heart conditions as well as structural abnormalities and various dysfunctions.

  1. Features

    • The echocardiography utilizes a transducer, a device that generates sound waves, then bounces sound waves off your heart's structure and generates an image that is used by your doctor as a diagnostic tool. This is the type of technology that allows doctor's to see your unborn baby.

    Types

    • There are four types of echocardiography, transthuoracic, stress, transophogeal and fetal.

    Features

    • The transthoracic echocardiography is painless and non-invasive and bounces sound waves off your heart's structure. The stress echocardiography is part of a stress test and can detect coronary artery disease. The transesophogeal echocardiography checks the aorta and other hard-to-reach places in the heart. The fetal echocardiography looks at a fetus' heart.

    Benefits

    • The echocardiography allows your doctor to see the structures and functions of your heart in a painless and, for the most part, non-invasive way.

    Warning

    • The transesophogeal test is invasive and is a tube attached to a transducer, sound wave generator, which is guide.

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