Insights an Echocardiogram Can Provide About Your Heart

Nearly half of adults in the United States have cardiovascular disease, emphasizing the importance of proactive heart health measures. An echocardiogram can be crucial in this effort, much like how X-rays help orthopedists diagnose broken bones.

This prevalence shows the need for proactive measures against heart disease, with echocardiograms playing a key role.

Dr. James Kim, with specialized fellowship training, and our team understand the significance of using the right diagnostic tools. That’s why we offer echocardiograms at our offices.

Let’s explore the valuable insights an echocardiogram can provide about your heart health.

A Closer Look at Your Heart

Using an echocardiogram, we employ sound waves to examine your heart in detail. You may already be familiar with this technology from ultrasounds used during pregnancy.

The sound waves bounce off your heart’s structures and return to the surface, where we gather the data and send it to a computer to create an image. While it might sound like a lengthy process, it happens almost instantly.

Insights from an Echocardiogram

An echocardiogram provides us with valuable information about your heart, including:

• The size and shape of your heart
• The thickness of your heart walls
• Valve function
• Pumping strength
• Blood flow through your heart
• Presence of damage or suspicious tissues
• Existence of clots
• Health of surrounding blood vessels

This advanced imaging tool is essential for assessing the condition and function of your heart. It plays a crucial role in diagnosing and treating conditions like congestive heart failure, valvular disease, and many other heart issues.

A Quick and Easy Echocardiogram Experience

While we value the echocardiogram for its diagnostic power, our patients appreciate it because it’s painless and quick.

There’s no special preparation needed for an echocardiogram, but you might want to wear comfortable, loose clothing. When you arrive, we’ll make you comfortable on the imaging table, apply a gel to help conduct the sound waves, and move a wand over your chest.

We may ask you to hold your breath occasionally for specific images, but mostly, you just need to lie back and relax.

Once the test is done, we clean off the gel, and you can continue with your day.

If you have more questions about the echocardiogram and how it can benefit you, contact us at our offices in Chula Vista or National City, California, to schedule an appointment.