Echocardiography a Valuable View of the Heart
The advanced imaging technique called contrast echocardiography can have a significant impact on the diagnosis and treatment of people hospitalized with heart disease, says a report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Echocardiography works by bouncing sound waves into the body in order to get a detailed image of the moving heart.
If that image is not clear enough, it can be improved by injecting a substance - called a contrast agent - so sound waves reflect better.
After performing contrast echocardiography, there was significant improvement in a doctor's ability to interpret the findings.
Study leader Dr. William A. Zoghbi, at the Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston, Texas says, "The importance of the study is that it is really the first time that we measured the impact of contrast echocardiography on assessment of ventricular function."
Ventricular function is a measure of the heart's blood-pumping ability.
In this trial of 632 patients, use of the technique avoided additional diagnostic procedures in 33 percent of cases and altered drug management in 10 percent of cases, says Dr. Zoghbi.
Contrast echocardiography was most useful in the intensive care unit, he says. Patients are usually sicker and have a lot of medical instruments in use, he says. "This is crucial for day-to-day patient management, particularly for hospitalized patients," says Dr. Zoghbi.
The technology is widely available in US hospitals Dr. Zoghbi informs.
Further, "What we've shown is that contrast echocardiography is important in complex cases, where the first images are not clear enough," he notes. "In our experience, we use it in about 15 percent of patients that are hospitalized."
Dr. Kevin Wei, at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, agrees that the new study shows "the impact of contrast echocardiography extends to multiple situations."
The emergency room is definitely one of them, where a patient is evaluated for chest pain to determine whether the cause is a heart attack.
"But," he adds, "it also allows picking up blood clots that have not been seen before and, in general, by getting more diagnostic information to begin with, potentially avoiding the risks associated with additional testing."
Always consult your physician for more information.
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An echocardiogram is a noninvasive (the skin is not pierced) procedure used to assess the heart's function and structures.
During the procedure, a transducer (like a microphone) sends out ultrasonic sound waves at a frequency too high to be heard.
When the transducer is placed on the chest at certain locations and angles, the ultrasonic sound waves move through the skin and other body tissues to the heart tissues, where the waves echo off of the heart structures.
The transducer picks up the reflected waves and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the echoes into an image of the heart walls and valves.
An echocardiogram may be performed for further evaluation of signs or symptoms that may suggest:
atherosclerosis - a gradual clogging of the arteries over many years by fatty materials and other substances in the blood stream
cardiomyopathy - an enlargement of the heart due to thickening or weakening of the heart muscle
congenital heart disease - defects in one or more heart structures that occur during formation of the fetus, such as a ventricular septal defect (hole in the wall between the two lower chambers of the heart)
heart failure - a condition in which the heart muscle has become weakened to an extent that blood cannot be pumped efficiently, causing buildup (congestion) in the blood vessels and lungs, and edema (swelling) in the feet, ankles, and other parts of the body
aneurysm - a dilation of a part of the heart muscle or the aorta (the large artery that carries oxygenated blood out of the heart to the rest of the body), which may cause weakness of the tissue at the site of the aneurysm
valvular heart disease - malfunction of one or more of the heart valves that may cause an obstruction of the blood flow within the heart
cardiac tumor - a tumor of the heart that may occur on the outside surface of the heart, within one or more chambers of the heart (intracavitary), or within the muscle tissue of the heart
pericarditis - an inflammation or infection of the sac that surrounds the heart
An echocardiogram may be performed to assess the heart’s function and structures.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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