Echocardiography is a painless and non invasive technique that utilises ultrasound to image the heart in real time. One, two or three-dimensional images of the heart are displayed on the screen and the flow of blood across the valves can be seen. Without any risk to the patient valuable information is obtained about the size of the various chambers, the function and strength of heart muscle and the presence of any clots, masses or tumours within the heart.  The pressures within the heart are measured and any leakage or narrowing of the valves is accurately assessed.

Transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) involves swallowing a small probe to image the heart from within the food pipe. TOE is usually required to decide about the suitability of diseased heart valves for repair or replacement.

Stress echocardiography (DASE) involves stimulation of the heart either by exercise or infusion of a medicine to look at the response of the heart muscle. DASE is invaluable in defining the viability of and the presence of lack of blood supply to various parts of the heart muscle.

Benefits

• Non-invasive and painless procedure.
• Fast, reliable and complete assessment of the structure and function of the heart.
• Ideal for diagnosis of problems in children and pregnant women, for whom an x-ray based investigation would be inappropriate.
• Requires no preparation
• More detailed and real time images than with X-rays

Risks

There is no known risk.