Echocardiography uses ultrasound to create images of the heart. It can show the size and shape of chambers and valves, detect abnormalities, and evaluate heart function. Doppler echocardiography uses sound wave speed and direction to measure blood flow through the heart and valves. A Holter monitor continuously records heart electrical activity over 24 hours to detect irregular heartbeats that may not appear during other tests. Both tests are noninvasive and provide information to diagnose cardiovascular conditions.

1. Medical Procedures By Stefana Sas

2. 1. EchocardiographyEchocardiography is a diagnostic test that uses ultrasound waves to create an image of the heart muscle. Ultrasound waves that rebound or echo off the heart can show the size, shape, and movement of the heart's valves and chambers as well as the flow of blood through the heart. Echocardiography may show such abnormalities as poorly functioning heart valves or damage to the heart tissue from a past heart attack.

3. EchocardiographyEchocardiography is used to diagnose certain cardiovascular diseases. In fact, it is one of the most widely used diagnostic tests for heart disease. It can provide a wealth of helpful information, including the size and shape of the heart, its pumping strength, and the location and extent of any damage to its tissues. It is especially useful for assessing diseases of the heart valves. It not only allows doctors to evaluate the heart valves, but it can detect abnormalities in the pattern of blood flow, such as the backward flow of blood through partly closed heart valves, known as regurgitation. By assessing the motion of the heart wall, echocardiography can help detect the presence and assess the severity of coronary artery disease, as well as help determine whether any chest pain is related to heart disease.Echocardiography can also help detect hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the walls of the heart thicken in an attempt to compensate for heart muscle weakness.The biggest advantage to echocardiography is that it is noninvasive and has no known risks or side effects.

4. EchocardiographyEchocardiography creates an image of the heart using ultra-high-frequency sound waves-sound waves that are too high in frequency to be heard by the human ear. The technique is very similar to ultrasound scanning commonly used to visualize the fetus during pregnancy.An echocardiography examination generally lasts between 15-30 minutes. The patient lies bare-chested on an examination table. A special gel is spread over the chest to help the transducer make good contact and slide smoothly over the skin. The transducer, a small hand-held device at the end of a flexible cable, is placed against the chest. Essentially a modified microphone, the transducer directs ultrasound waves into the chest. Some of the waves get echoed (or reflected) back to the transducer. Since different tissues and blood all reflect ultrasound waves differently, these sound waves can be translated into a meaningful image of the heart, which can be displayed on a monitor or recorded on paper or tape. The patient does not feel the sound waves, and the entire procedure is painless. In fact, there are no known side effects.Occasionally, variations of the echocardiography test are used. For example, Doppler echocardiography employs a special microphone that allows technicians to measure and analyze the direction and speed of blood flow through blood vessels and heart valves. This makes it especially useful for detecting and evaluating regurgitation through the heart valves. By assessing the speed of blood flow at different locations around an obstruction, it can also help to precisely locate the obstruction.

5. EchocardiographyAn echocardiogram may show a number of abnormalities in the structure and function of the heart, such as:thickening of the wall of the heart muscle (especially the left ventricle)abnormal motion of the heart muscleblood leaking backward through the heart valves (regurgitation)decreased blood flow through a heart valve (stenosis)

6. 2. Doppler ultrasound Doppler ultrasound is a noninvasive test that can be used to measure your blood flow and blood pressure by bouncing high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) off circulating red blood cells. A regular ultrasound uses sound waves to produce images, but can't show blood flow.A Doppler ultrasound can estimate how fast blood flows by measuring the rate of change in its pitch (frequency). During a Doppler ultrasound, a technician trained in ultrasound imaging (sonographer) presses a small hand-held device (transducer), about the size of a bar of soap, against your skin over the area of your body being examined, moving from one area to another as necessary. This test may be done as an alternative to more-invasive procedures such as arteriography and venography, which involve injecting dye into the blood vessels so that they show up clearly on X-ray images.

7. Doppler ultrasoundA Doppler ultrasound may help diagnose many conditions, including:Blood clotsPoorly functioning valves in your leg veins, which can cause blood or other fluids to pool in your legs (venous insufficiency)Heart valve defects and congenital heart diseaseA blocked artery (arterial occlusion)Decreased blood circulation into your legs (peripheral artery disease)Bulging arteries (aneurysms)Narrowing of an artery, such as those in your neck (carotid artery stenosis)

8. Doppler ultrasound

9. 3. Holter MonitorHolter monitor (often simply "Holter" or occasionally ambulatory electrocardiography device) is a portable device for continuously monitoring various electrical activity of the central nervous system system for at least 24 hours.Holter’s most common use is for monitoring heart activity (electrocardiography or ECG), but it can also be used for monitoring brain activity (electroencephalography or EEG).It is used for observing occasional cardiac arrhythmias or epileptic events which would be very difficult to identify in a short period of time.

10. Holter monitorThe Holter monitor is named for physicist Norman J. Holter, who invented telemetric cardiac monitoring in 1949. When used for the heart, much like standard electrocardiographythe Holter monitor records electrical signals from the heart via a series of electrodes attached to the chest. Electrodes are placed over the bones to minimize artifacts from muscular activity. The recorded data made will be analyzed by an technician.

11. Holter monitor

12. Work Citedwww.answers.comwww.mayoclinic.comwww.heartdisease.about.comwww.wikipedia.org