South Pointe Hospital offers a digital echocardiogram, also known as an echo, to diagnose many types of heart diseases. An echo is an ultrasound of the heart. It is noninvasive and provides color pictures of the heart to study its structure and function. An echo can provide pictures of the heart’s valves and chambers and can help evaluate the pumping action of the heart.
Traditionally, an echo is recorded on videotape for interpretation by a cardiologist. South Pointe offers a digital echo, which offers many benefits for cardiologists including:
· It is easy to find, save and retrieve studies
· It's easy to edit the study for key findings
· It's easy to compare studies side by side on the computer
· Studies can be sent electronically to physicians at another location or put on a disk
· Several physicians can view the same study simultaneously
· It eliminates videotape and its associated problems, such as storage and loss