Echocardiography Health Article

Definition

Echocardiography is a diagnostic test that uses ultrasound waves to produce an image of the heart muscle and the heart's valves.

Purpose

Echocardiography is used to diagnose certain cardiovascular diseases, and is one of the most widely used diagnostic tests for heart disease. Ultrasound waves that rebound or echo off the heart can show the size, shape, and movement of the heart's valves and chambers, as well as the flow of blood through the heart. Echocardiography may show abnormalities such as a poorly functioning heart valve or damage to the heart tissue from a heart attack. Echocardiography is especially useful for assessing disorders of the heart valves. It not only allows doctors to evaluate the heart valves, but can also detect abnormalities in the pattern of blood flow. For example, echocardiography can show the backward flow of blood through heart valves that are partially open (that should be fully closed). This backward flow of blood through a valve is known as regurgitation. By assessing the motion of the heart wall, echocardiography can help detect the presence, and assess the severity, of coronary artery disease, as well as help determine whether chest pain is related to heart disease. Additionally, echocardiography can help detect hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the walls of the heart thicken in an attempt to compensate for heart muscle weakness.

Echocardiography is also used to evaluate heart murmurs (abnormal heart sounds), determine the causes of congestive heart failure, assess enlarged hearts or hearts with septal defects (holes between pumping chambers), and monitor the heart in patients with diseases that may affect heart function (e.g., lupus, lung diseases). The biggest advantage to echocardiography is that it is noninvasive (it does not involve breaking the skin or entering body cavities) and has no known risks or side effects. Echocardiography is often used in conjunction with other diagnostic tests for the heart such as electrocardiography.

Echocardiography is usually performed in the cardiology department at a hospital, but may also be performed in a cardiologist's office or an outpatient imaging center. Because the ultrasound scanners used to perform echocardiography are portable (handheld) or mobile, echocardiography can be performed in the hospital's emergency department or at the bedside of patients who cannot be transported to the cardiology department.