Ultrasound
Echocardiograms are made using ultrasound technology. As Montefiore Medical Center explains, ultrasound uses sound waves at frequencies that are too high to be audible to the human ear. These sound waves are emitted using a small portable device called a transducer. The soundwaves are transmitted through the skin in the chest and bounce off structures there (such as the heart). These reflected waves are then detected by the transducer, which sends the signals to a computer. The computer then interprets these signals and then turns them into images of the organs.
Types
Different kinds of echocardiography can be used to look at the heart and are often used in combination to gain as much information as possible. M-mode echocardiograms produce images that are essentially traces of the heart. These are good for looking at the overall structure of the heart and measuring its size. 2-D echocardiograms allow for the physician to see the different structures in the heart as they are pumping and working. As the Cleveland Clinic explains, Doppler echocardiograms are able to measure the direction and speed with which blood flows through the heart.
Procedure
For an echocardiogram, the patient comes to the hospital and changes into a gown. The patient lies down on his back and is hooked up to an ECG machine, which measures electrical activity in the heart. A technician then puts a warm gel on the patient's chest (to make it easier for the sound waves to get into the body) and the transducer is then put on the gel. The transducer is moved around to get images from a variety of angles, and the images from the echocardiogram are compared to the ECG traces.
