Understanding echocardiography?

Thanks for asking,
Echocardiography, is normally a diagnostic procedure to rule out any structural and functional abnormality of the heart. It uses a probe which sends sound impulses to the targeted organ(heart) and impulses received and transferred into a computerised data.
This test can be done percutanously(by simply placing the probe on the chest wall) and trans-esophageally(a fine flexible probe is introduced into your food pipe(esophagus) and advanced until, receiving the perfect image of the heart)
The former one does not require any sedation but, the second method require a mild form of sedation to prevent gagging at the probe.
This test will reveal structural problem of the heart like valvular abnormalities,problem with the wall of the heart,presence of any growth and clots etc. It can also tell you that, how much blood is filling the chambers of the heart(filling pressure),how much blood is pumped out during each contraction(Ejection fraction) of the heart and is there any abnormal blood flow within the chambers of the heart.
It requires no preparation on the patient part.However, it is mandatory for patients being kept on nil by mouth for at least 2- 3 hours prior undertaking trans-esophageal method .
Hope, it helped

New uses of echocardiography to identify and stratify people with heart disease, Echocardiography has been around a long time, and it is part of the routine evaluation of heart disease, Echocardiography is a basically ultrasound for the heart & is a very accurate and versatile test.

echo uses sound waves to look at the heart.
think of it as taking a knife and cutting slices through a potato.
same aspect. you are using the sound waves to look at slices through the heart. it is used to look at valve function, blood flow, thrombus, vegitations, anything of an abnormal value.

Sound waves leave the ultrasound probe( which is placed on the skin) moves to the organ of intrest and bounces back to the probe and then onto the machine and onto the screen for the tech and radiologist to study.