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Echocardiogram

This non-invasive test uses ultrasound technology to take pictures of your heart.

Picking up echoes of sound waves
High-frequency sound waves travel through a probe called a transducer, which is placed against the chest wall. The transducer picks up echoes of the sound waves as they bounce off the heart. These echoes are transformed into moving images of the heart that appear on a video screen. 

Assessing size and pumping ability
The test assesses the size of the heart’s chambers and the quality of the valves, and measures the heart’s pumping ability. 

Transthoracic Echocardiogram
The most common type of echocardiogram. Views of the heart are obtained by moving the transducer, or probe, to different locations on your chest or abdominal wall.

Transesophageal  Echocardiogram
An alternative type of echocardiogram. A probe that emits high-frequency sound waves is guided through the mouth into the esophagus, to take close-up pictures of the heart.  The probe is located closer to the heart without the lungs and bones of the chest wall interfering with the sound waves – this allows for clearer pictures than routine echocardiograms. You will be given medication to make you sleepy and to numb your throat during the test.

Signal Averaged Electrocardiogram (SAECG)
Similar to an electrocardiogram, the SAECG is a painless, non-invasive test, with electrodes placed on the skin. These electrodes are attached to the SAECG machine so that the electrical activity of the heart is visualized, and then electronically manipulated by the signal-averaging software for deeper analysis. It provides greater in-depth information by collecting many heart beats and analyzing them together - a procedure called Signal-Averaging.