Echocardiography

What is it?

Echocardiography is an extremely useful and safe procedure that allows your cardiologist to look at your child's heart as it beats in his/her chest.

Like a sonar that uses sound waves to determine the location of another ship, the echocardiograph uses ultrasonic waves to create an image of the heart. Ultrasonic waves are generated by a crystal and projected into the chest. These waves bounce off the heart and return to the surface, where they are detected. The sound "echoes" are electronically plotted to generate a picture of the heart.

It is therefore possible to measure the size of the cardiac chambers, vessels and walls. Your cardiologist can also observe the heart as it beats in the chest, and decide if it is functioning properly. Using a doppler, it is also possible to determine the turbulence of the blood and estimate the pressures that exist in the heart. With the power of echocardiography, all of this is possible without surgery.

Procedure

A device shaped like a small wand (the ultrasonic transducer) will be put on your child's chest. The "wand" is then moved around to take pictures of the heart. You can see these pictures being formed on a television screen during the procedure. The pictures do not look much like a real heart, because they are taken in cross-section.

Important Points:

• Your child may usually eat and take any medicine prior to the procedure.
• Young children may require a mild sedative to help them to lie still.
• The test lasts about 30 minutes to 1 hour.
• A Doppler test may also be done. You will hear a swishing sound during the test. This is the sound of blood moving through your child's blood vessels.
• The test will not hurt. Your child might feel a slight chill from the gel that is spread over the chest before the "wand" is applied. Some people find the gel uncomfortable.
• To help your child to relax, the echo technicians can play a cartoon.