How an Echo Test Can Help For a Healthy Lifestyle

People across India and the world face many kinds of diseases. Amongst all the diseases, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) also sometimes referred to as heart diseases are one the most common diseases affecting millions of people in India and the world.

In 2016 the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases was estimated to be around 54.5 million. One in four deaths in India nowadays are caused by cardiovascular diseases. Out of these more than 80 percent deaths are caused by ischemic heart disease and stroke.

Heart diseases are caused by various reasons. Traditionally, heart diseases were primarily caused by growing age and family genes. However, due to modern unhealthy lifestyles, causes of heart diseases have increased. Some of the modern reasons include smoking, unhealthy or poor diet, drug abuse, stress, medication, alcohol, unusual sleep amongst others. Sometimes other diseases could also cause cardiovascular diseases. This includes diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, obesity, etc.

Hence to avoid any severe effects of cardiovascular diseases, people should scan their heart beforehand. And the most efficient way of scanning the heart is doing an echocardiography, also known as echocardiogram, cardiac echo, or simply an echo test.

Echo test uses sound waves to produce pictures of the inside of the heart. This technology is similar to the technologies used in sonar or radar, which helps in detecting ships and planes respectively. It can detect the abnormalities in a heart and can determine the type and cause of diseases in the heart. Echo test does not emit any kind of harmful radiation and is noninvasive; hence it is the most popular way of scanning the heart.

Echo test is primarily of three types: transthoracic, transesophageal, and intracardiac. The process of doing an echo test is also very easy and simple. Before doing an echo test, patients need to change to hospital gown and an echo test technician or echocardiographer will coat the skin area with lubricating jelly which will be scanned. The jelly will reduce the friction in the skin and also help to transmit the sound waves. After completing the scanning the gel will be cleaned off the skin. Generally, this entire process takes on average around 30 minutes.

This entire process needs to be done carefully. Hence, to get an accurate result in the entire process, echo tests should be done by technicians with good training and lots of experience. Hence, the next time you need to scan your body organs, you should try an echo test in Bangalore with Ecotown Diagnostics who expertise in echo test.