“What is an echocardiogram?”
My doctor advised me to have an echocardiogram. What is an echocardiogram?
2 Answers
ECG or EKG is a painless procedure where we put several stickers (called electrodes) on your chest to take "picture" of the electrical activity of your heart. Your provider will use this to determine if there are any irregularities in your heart beat and if further work up is necessary. The procedure is super quick, it honestly takes longer to put on all the stickers than it does to capture the image. routine ECG is useful to help your provider diagnose, treat and track any ongoing or potential conditions.
An echocardiogram is a test in which high frequency sound waves are bounced off your heart and create an image of your heart and its functioning. It is the safest imaging test we have in cardiology and extremely informative. A technician will place a transducer on your chest wall with some goo on it. The technician will then slide it around to find the best sites for imaging your heart. Sometimes the tech may press a little hard and you can tell them it is uncomfortable. The technician will be looking at a video screen to assess the quality of the images.
