what is a (echo) cardiograph for?

Answer 1

Echocardiography involves real-time ultrasound imaging of the heart in motion. Just like an obstetrician can move an ultrasound probe over a pregnant woman's uterus and view the fetus from a variety of angles, so too can the echocardiographer view the heart from a number of angles and interrogate it's movement. There are several very useful pieces of information that can come of this.

First, the physical size of the heart chambers and their degree of contractility can be measured. From this comes a defined measure termed "ejection fraction". People with weakened hearts after heart-attack or chronic conditions such as cardiomyopathy will have reduced ejection fractions.

Second, there are at times obvious regions of the heart muscle that fail to contract in the normal way. This is called "wall motion abnormality" and it is suggestive of regions within the muscular wall of the heart where scar has replaced contractile muscle. This is what happens after a heart attack. Occassionally, the scar region can begin to inflate like a balloon - risking rupture. This is called "ventricular aneurysm" and it requires a complex surgical repair. These abnormalities are readily apparent on echo.

Next, the motion and sealing of the heart valves can be visualized. Some cardiac conditions involve either failure of heart valves to close securely or else failure to open completely. These kinds of valvular abnormalities are readily apparent on echo, and the degree to which these leak or impede flow can be measured. In some disease conditions, the turbulence caused by valvular abnormality can in turn lead to deposition of globular growths on the valves called vegetations. Vegetations are visible by echo.

Finally, the technology of "doppler ultrasound" lets us view not only the solid material of the heart, but it can also allow us to watch the fluid dynamic flow. Thanks to computer color-coding of the fluid spaces, we can see where the blood is flowing toward the ultrasound probe and where it is moving away. We can see where jets of fluid are flowing through the heart in the normal fashion and we can see turbulent zones caused by cardiac defects. Velocities of flow can be measured, and changes in velocity from one location to another can be used to estimate the size of valve openings.

A number of other things can be looked at during the echocardiogram, but those are some of the main elements.

I hope that helped.

Answer 2

It is an ultrasound of the heart.