Echocardiography & Cardiac Function

Echocardiography creates an image of the heart using ultra-high-frequency sound waves, and is a similar technique to the ultrasound commonly used to visualize the fetus during pregnancy (3). It is one of the most commonly used diagnostic tests for heart disease. Occasionally, variations of the echocardiography test are used, such as Doppler echocardiography, which employs a special microphone that allows measurement of the direction and speed of blood flow through the blood vessels and heart valves. By assessing the speed of blood flow at different locations around an obstruction, it can help to precisely locate the obstruction. It can also detect and help evaluate regurgitation through the heart valves. Exercise echocardiograms, taken while the patient is exercising, allow doctors to detect heart problems that might not be evident when the body is at rest and needs less blood (3). For patients unable to exercise, drugs can be given which mimic the effects of exercis

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, only seven were detected in the four-chamber view, showing the need for detailed fetal echocardiography to detect heart defects. The importance of fetal echocardiography in this study was demonstrated by the fact that it showed an association between cardiac defects and otherwise undiagnosable chromosomal abnormalities. In four cases, the diagnosis of an isolated cardiac malformation without any extracardiac abnormality by subsequent chromosomal analysis led to the detection of an abnormal karyotype. These cases would not have been diagnosed without detailed fetal heart echocardiography. Raymond, Simpson, Sharland and Ogilvie found that 25 percent of fetuses examined by echocardiography at 20 to 24 weeks of gestation had concomitant chromosomal abnormalities (4). The highest rate of abnormalities occurred in fetuses with atrioventricular septal defect. With such a high rate of chromosomal abnormalities in fetuses with cardiac abnormalities, fetal echocardiography becomes an important diagnostic tool for predicting these abnormalities. Borgida, Odibo, Egan, Esters and Campbell believe that fetal Echocardiography should be an important and routine test for determination of dextroposition, where a fetus= heart is on the ri
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Moscoso Ville, Additional Doppler, , Wimmer Bernaschek, Esters Campbell, Sharland Ogilvie, Bernaschek Effect, fetal echocardiography, Ogilvie Fetal, Ville First-trimester, cardiac abnormalities, Enc Med, detailed fetal, detailed fetal echocardiography, heart disease, four-chamber view, chromosomal abnormalities, septal defect, weeks gestation, risk factors, congenital heart, congenital heart disease, atrioventricular septal defect, cardiac abnormalities detected, stumpflen wimmer bernaschek,
Approximate Word count = 1481
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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