If your heart has problems, early diagnosis is essential to getting the most effective treatment. Prompt treatment for heart conditions can even save your life.
A diagnostic cardiac ultrasound, also known as an echocardiogram, at Primary & Alternative Medical Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, is the best way to determine if your heart is functioning as it should. In this blog post, Jean Welsh, MD, explains a diagnostic cardiac ultrasound and what it can tell about your heart.
A diagnostic cardiac ultrasound is a painless, noninvasive test that assesses how well your heart is functioning. It looks at your heart’s shape, size, and valves to determine how well it pumps blood.
The test uses advanced sound wave ultrasound technology, which is the same technology used to monitor a developing fetus during pregnancy. It creates high-quality images of your heart. Using these images, our team can review your results and detect heart problems such as:
Using your results, our team makes a personalized treatment plan to treat any heart conditions and reduce your risk of further problems.
Our team might recommend a diagnostic cardiac ultrasound for several reasons. One common reason is that you have symptoms or risk factors for a heart condition. Diagnostic cardiac ultrasounds help confirm or rule out a diagnosis.
If you’ve already been diagnosed with a heart condition, a diagnostic cardiac ultrasound can help our team monitor your condition and make any needed adjustments to your treatment plan. We might order this test at regular intervals.
Diagnostic cardiac ultrasounds are useful to view your heart before or after a heart-related surgery.
You can get diagnostic cardiac ultrasounds at our comfortable offices at Primary & Alternative Medicine. The procedure requires no special preparation. You can take any medications as usual and go about your usual routine unless you’ve been instructed otherwise.
A medical technician who specializes in ultrasound technology tests performs the exam. Before the procedure begins, you remove any clothing from the waist up and put on a surgical gown if you’re a woman.
We place three electrodes on your chest, which are attached to an electrocardiograph monitor using wires. The monitor tracks your heart’s movements and responses throughout the procedure.
To begin the procedure, we place an ultrasound gel on your chest, which is used to comfortably wave a wand across different parts of your chest.
You lie still and remain quiet while we perform the painless test. Occasionally, we might ask you to move into a different position or hold your breath.
The entire procedure takes 30-40 minutes. Once it’s over, you can go back to your day.
Our team will take a few days to review the images produced during the diagnostic cardiac results. Once the review is complete, we contact you to schedule an appointment to review the results.
A diagnostic cardiac ultrasound is a comprehensive test used to monitor how your heart is functioning. If you’re concerned about your heart health and want to determine if this test is right for you, contact us to make an appointment.
