A heart ultrasound, also known as an echocardiogram, provides valuable information about your heart’s structure and function. While it assesses overall heart health, it does not directly visualize blockages within the coronary arteries. Instead, it offers indirect insights into how the heart performs, which can be affected by blockages.
Understanding Heart Ultrasound
An echocardiogram uses high-frequency sound waves to generate moving pictures of the heart. A technician applies gel to the chest and moves a transducer, a hand-held wand, across the area. This transducer emits sound waves that bounce off heart structures, creating real-time images on a monitor. This non-invasive procedure assesses the heart’s size, shape, and chambers.
The ultrasound shows the heart’s pumping strength, measured as ejection fraction, and evaluates how well its valves open and close. It can also detect fluid around the heart and observe heart muscle wall motion. Abnormalities in wall motion or reduced pumping function, which may result from insufficient blood flow due to blockages, are detectable. However, an echocardiogram does not directly show plaque buildup within the small coronary arteries, which are challenging to visualize with this technology.
Direct Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Blockages
Since an echocardiogram does not directly show blockages, other specialized tests identify and visualize coronary artery obstructions. Coronary angiography, also known as cardiac catheterization, is a primary method for directly visualizing blockages. During this invasive procedure, a thin catheter is threaded through a blood vessel to the heart, and a contrast dye is injected, allowing blockages to appear on X-ray images.
Another non-invasive option is CT angiography (CTA), which uses X-rays and contrast dye to create detailed pictures of the coronary arteries and detect plaque or blockages. Stress tests, such as exercise, pharmacologic, stress echocardiograms, or nuclear tests, evaluate how the heart performs under increased demand. These tests reveal blood flow issues caused by blockages by showing changes in heart activity or blood flow patterns during exertion.
The Broader Role of Ultrasound in Heart Care
Despite its inability to directly visualize blockages, a heart ultrasound remains a valuable tool in cardiology. It helps assess the extent of damage caused by a heart attack, which often results from a blockage. The echocardiogram evaluates overall heart function, providing insights that guide treatment decisions, including medication adjustments or surgical interventions.
This imaging technique is also valuable for detecting various other heart conditions, such as valve disease, heart failure, or structural issues. Echocardiography allows monitoring of heart disease progression or assessment of ongoing treatment effectiveness. It serves as a non-invasive initial assessment for many cardiac symptoms, offering immediate images that aid in diagnosis and management.