Echocardiography is a common investigative technique hearts - you could say that after listening to classical stethoscope and EKG's "echo" now the third most widely used cardiologic examination. Unlike the previous two I mentioned this tour never fails practitioner. Cardiologists's cup of tea, which you have, your doctor or other professional first send.
Reasons to Visit
Echo can be sent for example if:
you have a heart murmur;
You have had a heart attack;
you suffer from chest pain of unknown origin;
you have unexplained difficulty zadýcháváním;
You have a history of rheumatic fever;
you have a congenital heart defect.
The reasons for the examinations is of course more. Most patients with heart problems who attend cardiology, heart ultrasound scans regularly.
As the investigation proceeds
Cardiology you can also measure the pressure or ECG removed, but the actual echo is a matter for about 15 minutes. Your doctor will ask you to put down to the waist and lie down on a sun lounger. A probe about the size of a pear, moistened with a special gel, it will move over your chest. Sometimes while you request a change of location or a deep breath and exhale. Examination painless, has no risk, following which you can immediately go home.
There are other variants?
Yes. If the chest physician will be able to get a good picture, you will need to get closer to the heart - you can therefore get done so. Esophageal echo. For this, the probe swallows and expert observes hearts through the wall of the esophagus. This examination is a bit more demanding and requires little preparation.
What is shown and revealed
A doctor on the monitor device (echocardiographic) sees the movie heart activity. Accordingly, the direction rotated probe can observe cardiac cavity sections at different angles. Miss gave the range abnormality - perhaps some enlargement of atria and ventricles, heart wall thickening, poor closing flaps, opening in the partition between the chambers and so forth. The doctor can find an explanation for the patient's problems and to establish a diagnosis or exclude a suspected heart disease.
All Seeing Eye
Echocardiography is the kind of big wheeled box, which includes a probe attached cable.
It sends the body into high-frequency sound waves, which the human ear can not hear.
Waves in certain tissues (mainly those with high water content) and absorbed by the other to a greater or lesser extent reflect.
Then again, captured the probe and the display device displays a moving image of the heart. On it are the various tissues appear in shades of gray. For example, rigid scar after a heart attack and it is clearly distinguishable from the surrounding healthy muscle.
Device sometimes gives audible and rhythmic sounds that physicians show the characteristics of blood flow to different parts of the heart. When narrowing or vice versa nedovírání monitored flaps audio output varies. The so-called color echocardiography in turn can inform your doctor what direction the blood flow in the heart and if somewhere does not flow backwards. Ultrasound technology is constantly improving, the picture becomes clearer and more precise. Still as valid and some time will apply to echocardiography for investigation of heart indispensable method.
Source: Heart in kondici.cz