What is echocardiography?

Echocardiography, or echo, is a painless test that uses sound waves to create pictures of your heart.

The test gives your doctor information about the size and shape of your heart and how well your heart's chambers and valves are working. Echo also can be done to detect heart problems in infants and children.

The test also can identify areas of heart muscle that aren't contracting normally due to poor blood flow or injury from a previous heart attack. In addition, a type of echo called Doppler ultrasound shows how well blood flows through the chambers and valves of your heart.

Echo can detect possible blood clots inside the heart, fluid buildup in the pericardium (the sac around the heart), and problems with the aorta. The aorta is the main artery that carries oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your body.

This answer from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has been reviewed and/or edited by Dr. William D. Knopf.

Echocardiography is an ultrasound of the heart. Often referred to as just echo, an echocardiogram is a painless test that does not usually require any intravenous line or sedation. The test gives the doctor information about the size of the heart as well as its structure and blood flow. It is useful to assess abnormalities of the heart valves and aorta. The echocardiogram also obtains additional information through a technique called Doppler ultrasound that is similar to the weather Doppler that you can see on television. This allows the doctor to assess the blood flow through the heart and detect any abnormalities caused with the blood flow related to structural problems such as narrowing or leaking valves. Echocardiography is often used in children to detect and assess congenital heart disease in children as well as adults. It can even be performed on a baby while it is in the mother's womb in the event that there is concern about an abnormality in the developing fetus. Echocardiography is often used to look for fluid around the heart over the course of one's lifetime to follow the progression of valvular heart disease so as to best assess timing for surgery.

Echocardiography or echo or ultrasound is a procedure that uses sound waves to create a picture of the heart muscle. Usually a sonographer or technologist will put jelly on the chest and with a transducer makes contact with the chest wall Images of the heart muscle function and structure are then obtained real time. This gives the physician important information about both the structure and the function of the heart muscle. It can detect any valve problems, whether they leak too much or of the valves don't open adequately. It can also give information about how weak the heart muscle is from a previous heart attack or from a cardiomyopathy (weak heart muscle that can lead to congestive heart failure). The echocardiogram can also give information outside of the heart with the great blood vessels including the aorta, the pulmonary artery, the pericardium, and sometimes lung fluid.