Echocardiography is a noninvasive diagnostice method that uses ultrasound to visualize internal cardiac structures. All cardiac valves control the flow of blood into, through, and out of the heart. The ventricles are the two lower chambers of the heart that, when filled with blood, contract to propel it into the arteries. The right ventricle forces blood into the pulmonary artery and then into the left ventricle after the lungs; the left pumps blood into the aorta to the rest of the body. The left atrium receives oxygenated red blood from the lungs through the pulmonary veins. There are several different methos of echocardiography. Two-dimensional sector scanning and continuous-wave, pulse and color-flow doppler studies are done in our CMG offices; transesophageal echocardiography and exercise stress echocardiography are done in the hospital.
Two-dimensional sector scanning is used to assess myocardial function, valvular pathology, chamber dimensions and pericardial disease. Two-dimensional sector scanning is indicated for the evaluation of:
- Left ventricular thickness in patients with hypertension
- Left ventricular size and function in patients with interstitial pulmonary edema, dyspnea, or findings suggesting
congestive heart failure
- Valvular pathology in patients with murmurs, extertional symptoms, or endocarditis
- Regional left ventricular function in patients with coronary disease
- Pericardial pathology
Continuous-wave, pulsed and color-flow doppler studies measure the velocity of blood as it passes through cardiac valves and chambers. It is important for the assessment of valvular pathology, congenital heart disease, and ventricular dysfunction. Doppler echocardiography is indicated for the evaluation of:
- Severity of valvular regurgitation or stenosis
- Congenital heart disease including atril and ventricular septal defects and patent ductus arteriosis
- Restrictive cardiac physiology in patients presenting with edema or fatigue
- Tamponade physiology in patients with pericardial effusions