Ascension Michigan Heart Report: Dr. Cohen

Learn More About Echocardiograms

Question: What is an echocardiogram?

Dr. Cohen: An echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart and it’s the most commonly used non-evasive tests aside from EKGs and uses ultrasounds to see the different parts of the heart; the four chambers, the great vessels, the valves and the linings around the heart and typically what we do is we put some gel on the chest and we put a probe on the chest and move it around to see the heart.

Question: What does this test tell you?

Dr. Cohen: So we look at the four chambers in the valves of the heart and the lining of the great vessels and we see how everything is working how the heart functions moving in, whether the valves are making the flow go in one direction and we can do it in different ways, we can look at it with 3-dimensional imaging and we can do it with exercise as well.

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