My mom is having an echocardiogram test done today, is that dangerous?
Best wishes to you mom! 1) If your mom is having a standard (transthoracic) echocardiogram (TTE), it should be absolutely no problem. But if it were a transesophageal echocardiogram (with a probe passed into the patient’s esophagus), there were some risks associated with the procedure. 2) an echocardiogram is not the same as an electrocardiogram: “An electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG, abbreviated from the German Elektrokardiogramm) is a graphic produced by an electrocardiograph, which records the electrical activity of the heart over time. Its name is made of different parts: electro, because it is related to electronics, cardio, Greek for heart, gram, a Greek root meaning “to write”.” Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocardiogram 3) “An echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart. Also known as a cardiac ultrasound, it uses standard ultrasound techniques to image two-dimensional slices of the heart. The latest ultrasound systems now employ 3D real-time im
