Echocardiogram (Echo):
An imaging procedure that creates a moving picture outline of the heart’s valves and chambers using high-frequency sound waves that come from a hand held wand placed on your chest or passed down your throat. Echo is often combined with Doppler ultrasound and color Doppler to evaluate blood flow across the heart’s valves. Doppler senses the speed of sound and can pick up abnormal leakage or blockage of valves.
Exercise Stress Echocardiogram (Stress Echo):
A procedure that combines echocardiography with exercise to evaluate the heart’s function at rest with exertion. Echocardiography is an imaging procedure that creates a picture of the heart’s movement, valves and chambers using high-frequency sound waves that come from a hand held wand placed on your chest. Echo is often combined with Doppler ultrasound and color Doppler to evaluate blood flow across the heart’s valves.
Transesophageal Echocardiogram (TEE):
An invasive imaging procedure that creates a picture of the heart’s movement, valves and chambers using high-frequency sound waves that come from a small transducer passed down your throat. TEE provides clear images of the heart’s movement because the transducer is close to the heart and limits interference with air in the lungs. Echo is often combined with Doppler ultrasound and color Doppler to evaluate blood flow across the heart’s valves.
Carotid Doppler:
This Doppler ultrasound test uses reflected sound waves to evaluate blood as it flows through the carotid artery. It can show blocked or reduced blood flow in the arteries of the neck that could cause a stroke. During duplex Doppler ultrasound, a handheld instrument (transducer) is passed lightly over the skin above the carotid artery. The transducer sends and receives sound waves that are amplified through a microphone. Information from the reflected sound waves can be processed by a computer to provide graphs or pictures that represent the flow of blood through the blood vessels.