Ultrasound (ultrasonic waves) is used in echocardiography (also called echo for short). These sound waves are sent to the heart with the help of a sensitive instrument in the form of a tube, which is held by the hand and creates the sound that is carried over the patient's chest. Different tissues reflect sound waves in different ways. Thus, the sound waves returning from the heart are converted into pictures by the computer, and these images are printed on paper as well as viewed on the monitor.

Echo is a quick and harmless test that gives important information about the heart.

with echo;

heart valve diseases,
The diameters of the heart chambers, whether they are large or not,
Movements of the heart walls, whether there are movement disorders (in cardiovascular diseases, wall movement disorders may occur in the places where the blood supply of the relevant vessel),
intracardiac pressures,
Investigation of clot (thrombus) in the intracardiac spaces,
The amount and percentage of blood that the heart beats at once during contraction (After the human heart is filled with blood, it throws a certain percentage of the blood inside it with contraction. The percentage of blood that the heart throws into the veins in each heartbeat is called the "ejection fraction". Normal is around 55-70%. It can throw 55-70% of the blood that comes to itself at once.), can be investigated.
In short, valuable information is obtained with echo in many subjects such as cardiac rheumatism, valve diseases, heart failure, heart attack, congenital heart diseases.
Advantages of the eco:

It gives important information about the valve and wall movements of the heart,
There are many places,
Paint, radioactive material, needles are not used,
It is painless and not harmful to the patient.
In some cases, it may be necessary to obtain more detailed information with a transesophageal (through the esophagus) echo (abbreviated as TEE). In this examination, the throat is anesthetized, a pinky-finger-thick tube is inserted into the esophagus, and the heart is examined in more detail from the posterior side. Fasting should be done before TEE examination.