What Does Echocardiography Show?

An echocardiography shows the size, structure, and movement of the different parts of your heart, including the valves, the septum (the wall separating the chambers on the right and left sides of the heart), and the walls of the heart chambers. The Doppler ultrasound technique shows the movement of blood through the heart.

Echocardiography can be used to:

• Diagnose heart problems
• Guide or determine next steps for treatment
• Monitor changes and improvement
• Determine the need for additional tests

Echocardiography can detect many different types of heart problems. Some of these can be minor and pose no risk to you. Others can be signs of serious heart disease or other heart problems. An echocardiography can provide information on:

• The size of your heart. An enlarged heart can be the result of high blood pressure, leaky heart valves, or heart failure.
• Heart muscles that are weak and aren’t moving (pumping) properly. Weakened areas of heart muscle can be due to damage from a heart attack. Or weakening could mean that the area isn’t getting enough blood supply, which can be due to coronary artery disease.
• Problems with your heart’s valves. Echocardiography can show whether any of the valves of your heart don’t open normally or don’t form a complete seal when closed.
• Abnormalities in the structure of your heart. Echocardiography can detect a variety of heart abnormalities, such as a hole in the septum (the wall that separates the two chambers on the left side of the heart from the two chambers on the right side) and other congenital heart defects (structural problems present at birth).
• The aorta. Echocardiography is commonly used to assess and detect problems with the aorta such as aneurysm (abnormal bulge or “ballooning” in the wall of an artery).
• Blood clots or tumors. If you have had a stroke, echocardiography might be done to check for blood clots or tumors that may have caused it.