Echocardiography

Echocardiograms (echoes) are tests that use sound waves to create a picture of the heart. There are several types of echocardiograms. All echoes involve using a special device (transducer) that emits high-frequency sound waves. The transducer (which looks like a microphone) sends and detects sound waves as they bounce off tissue, and sends this information to a computer. The computer uses this data to create a picture of the heart.

At Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, our echocardiography experts offer the full range of echo procedures, including:

• Transthoracic echocardiography: This is the most common type of echo. It's a noninvasive test, performed by placing the transducer on the chest. Learn more »
• Stress echocardiography: A stress echo is a transthoracic echo performed during exercise to assess heart function under exertion. In most cases, patients don't actually exercise--they're given special drugs that increase the heart rate and change blood flow to imitate how the heart would react to exercise.
• Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE): TEE involves inserting a special type of transducer in the back of the throat (esophagus) to get a closer look at the heart. Learn more »
• Intracardiac echocardiography: Intracardiac echoes are performed using special transducers that are thin enough to be threaded into the heart during a catheterization procedure. Intracardiac means "inside the heart."
• Intravascular echocardiography: Like intracardiac echoes, these are performed during a catheterization procedure. Intravascular echoes look at the inside structure of large blood vessels.
• Intra-operative echocardiography: An intra-operative echo is an echocardiogram performed during a surgical procedure. This can be a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) or an epicardial echocardiogram which means the transducer is placed directly on the heart.
• Fetal echocardiography: Fetal echocardiography is an echo of the heart of a baby that is still inside its mother's womb. Learn more »

Specially trained technicians perform noninvasive echocardiograms, while physicians with training in advanced echocardiography perform invasive echoes. All echoes are reviewed and interpreted by pediatric cardiac physicians. Our physicians use the latest echocardiography equipment, including technology that can create three-dimensional images of the heart.