Echocardiography Lab
Appointments
Echocardiogram Services
Echocardiography is a non-invasive test that uses ultrasound waves to create moving pictures of the heart. It is the most commonly ordered test to evaluate heart structure and function. Doppler assessment allows for measurement of the velocity of blood flow across the heart valves and thereby evaluates their function.
At Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, our state-of-the-art Echocardiography Lab provides 2D imaging to assess heart and valve function in real time, and 3-D live imaging when needed to help identify a heart problem more precisely and guide the best treatment for each patient.
Our cardiovascular medicine specialists perform echocardiography to:
- Evaluate cardiac chamber size and function.
- Assess regional and global contractile function of the pumping heart chambers (left and right ventricles).
- Detect, and quantify severity of valve dysfunction (narrowing or leakage).
- Estimate pressures within the various heart chambers and within the pulmonary artery.
- Detect possible congenital abnormalities such as a “hole in the heart.”
- Detect possible blood clots inside the heart.
- Assess pericardium (the sac around the heart) for evidence of fluid buildup (pericardial effusion), or abnormal thickening (pericardial constriction).
- Identify problems with the aorta, the main artery that carries oxygen-rich blood from your heart to the rest of your body.
Types of Modalities
This modality is used in conjunction to 2D imaging to determine direction and speed of blood flow within the heart chambers. It is particularly useful for detection and estimation of severity of valve regurgitation (leakage).
This modality is used to determine direction and speed of blood flow within the heart chambers and across heart valves. It is commonly used to detect valvular narrowing abnormalities (stenosis), and grade its severity. Doppler measurements can be combined with 2D imaging for the calculation of stroke volume, cardiac output, and valve area quantification.
This is a commonly used modality for the non-invasive detection of “ischemia,” a condition whereby there is compromise in blood flow during stress related to atherosclerotic plaque that causes partial narrowing of a coronary vessel. This results in the consumption of oxygen by heart muscle tissue at a rate that is greater than can be delivered to it, causing it to contract less effectively than a neighboring heart muscle segment that is supplied by a healthy vessel without narrowing. Such a difference in contractility pattern is detectable by echocardiographic imaging.
Stress is typically achieved with exercise, but for those who are unable to adequately perform an exercise based stress test, pharmacologic testing with dobutamine can be alternatively used. The data obtained from such stress tests, which are obtained non-invasively and without radiation, are then used for planning the best treatment strategy in an individual patient, and to decide on whether additional testing and/or treatment is required.
3D Echocardiography is utilized in selected cases where the live three-dimensional display of cardiac structures and their relationship to one another is important for decision-making. This is particularly common during interventional procedures.
This advanced imaging modality allows for acquisition of higher resolution images from the esophagus (the tube that connects the mouth with the stomach). Various cardiac structures can be better assessed with this modality (such as the left atrial appendage, valvular structures, the atrial septum, and the thoracic aorta). It is commonly used for echocardiographic guidance during interventional procedures.
This is the most commonly used modality where the ultrasound transducer is placed on the chest to obtain surface images from various acoustic windows.
About the Echocardiography Laboratory
The Echocardiography Laboratory plays a central role in the diagnosis of a wide variety of cardiovascular conditions in the ambulatory, inpatient, critical care, and intraoperative settings. The Echocardiography Laboratory at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center is a high volume laboratory where the team performs more than 18,000 echocardiograms annually. This includes over 4,000 stress echocardiograms (exercise and dobutamine stress), which represents one of the largest stress echo volumes in the New England area.
The Echocardiography Laboratory is fully accredited through Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC), which is the only recognized body that that sets national quality standards and accredits laboratories after a rigorous review. All of the echo machines have live 3D capability, and the reading stations include the capability for advanced off-line analysis and quantification.
The Lahey Cardiovascular Department strives to provide cutting-edge techniques using the latest emerging technologies to its patients. Successful performance of many such procedures is critically dependent on image-guided interventional procedures. This has led to an era of deeper collaboration with the invasive cardiology specialties.
Specifically, with the development of new services in the Arrhythmia Section regarding closure of the left atrial appendage, and in Interventional Cardiology with the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), and percutaneous procedures for mitral regurgitation (MitraClip), our commitment to supporting invasive procedures has taken a quantum leap.
When we combine these important clinical enhancements with the growth in demand for diagnostic studies, we anticipate that the Lab will continue to provide the necessary support to offer the best service possible for our outpatients, inpatients and patients undergoing advanced cardiac procedures.
Meet the Echocardiography Team
- Sherif B. Labib, MD, Director, Echocardiography Laboratories
- Jeffrey Clayman, MD
- Jennifer Collins, MD
- Timothy Draper, DO, Medical Director, Lahey-Peabody Cardiology
- Darryl D. Esakof, MD, Director, Cardiovascular Informatics and Non-Invasive Testing
- Jana Montgomery, MD, MPH, Director, LHMC Anticoagulation Services
- Sachin Shah, MD, Medical Director, Coronary Care Unit
- David Venesy, MD, Director, LHMC Advanced Heart Failure Program
- Robin Childress, PA
