Echocardiography
Echocardiography is a noninvasive ultrasound procedure that assesses the heart’s function and structures and detects anomalies if there are any. Echocardiography allows us to diagnose or evaluate many conditions, including:
- Congenital heart disease – Defects in one or more heart structures
- Atherosclerosis – Blocking of the arteries due to gradual clogging from inflammation and cholesterol deposition
- Arrhythmia – An irregular heartbeat
- Cardiomyopathy – These are a group of diseases that affects heart muscle due to acquired or inherited causes resulted in inefficient pumping of blood by the heart
- Congestive heart failure – When the heart cannot pump efficiently, there’s congestion in the blood vessels and lungs and swelling in the feet, ankles and other parts of the body
- Aneurysm – A ballooning of the heart muscle or aorta
- Valvular heart disease – Malfunction of heart valves that may cause aberrant blood flow
- Cardiac tumor – Tumor of the heart
- Pericarditis – Inflammation or infection of the sac surrounding the heart