heart and blood vessel disorders
Echocardiography and Other Ultrasound Procedures
How echocardiography is done
The ultrasound waves are emitted by a probe that both emits and detects ultrasound waves (transducer). The transducer can be placed On the person's chest (transthoracic) In the person's esophagus (transesophageal) Sometimes on a catheter inside the heart (intracardiac) Intransthoracic echocardiography(the most common type), the transducer is handheld and placed on the chest over the heart. The examiner places gel on the chest under the transducer to help transmit the sound waves into the chest. The transducer is connected to a computer that displays an image on a monitor and stores the image digitally. By varying the placement and angle of the transducer, doctors can view the heart and nearby major blood vessels from various angles and thus get an accurate picture of heart structure and function. During various portions of the examination, people will need to hold their breath for about 10 seconds to ensure clear images are obtained. Transthoracic echocardiography is painless and takes 20 to 30 minutes. Sometimes doctors use a portable ultrasonography machine at the person's bedside in order to determine specific information quickly. Often portable technology is used when people are receiving care in an emergency department or intensive care unit. can be used if doctors need to obtain greater clarity or to analyze the aorta or structures at the back of the heart (particularly the left atrium or left ventricle). For this procedure, a small flexible tube with an ultrasound transducer at the tip is passed down the person's throat into the esophagus so that the transducer lies just behind the heart. Because this procedure is uncomfortable, the person is sedated and the throat is numbed with an anesthetic spray. Transesophageal echocardiography is also used when regular echocardiography is difficult to do because of obesity, lung disorders, or other technical problems or when doctors are looking for specific diseases, such as Infective Endocarditis of the mitral valve or aortic valve or a clot within the heart. is a rare type of echocardiography that is done when a person is having a procedure on the heart such as a procedure to repair an Atrial and Ventricular Septal Defects (hole in the heart). For intracardiac echocardiography, a small flexible tube with an ultrasound transducer at the tip is passed from a blood vessel in the groin directly into a chamber of the heart. The person having this procedure is usually sedated. Intracardiac echocardiography is used when doctors need to obtain detailed pictures of the heart that cannot be obtained using transthoracic or transesophageal echocardiography. 