Transesophageal echocardiography, fetal echocardiography, adult echocardiography, and echocardiography instrumentation are all types of echocardiography courses. Courses on heart physiology, sonography, stress echocardiography, and pediatric echocardiography are among the other options. Students who are new to echocardiography, which is the use of ultrasound waves and their echoes to probe heart activities, typically have at least an associate’s degree in a health discipline and enroll in introductory courses that cover terminology, techniques, protocol, and professional precautions.
Through an endoscope inserted into the esophagus, transesophageal echocardiography courses focus on reading the heart’s movement and condition. Students learn the proper anesthesia for such a procedure, formally known as a transesophageal echocardiogram, in these courses. Courses on this type of surgical procedure may cover topics such as which cardiac patients might benefit from an echocardiogram, how to interpret the image of the heart created by ultrasound waves, and how to calculate blood flow velocity from sound waves.
The use of echocardiograms to diagnose heart conditions in specific demographics: fetuses, adults, and children, respectively, is the focus of fetal, adult, and pediatric echocardiography courses. These classes delve into the heart issues that are specific to certain age groups. For example, cognitive heart failure is a condition that is frequently studied using echocardiograms in pediatric courses. Poor heart development due to abnormal genes or chromosomes is a common focus in fetal courses, in which students learn about testing the heart condition of an unborn baby during the last months of pregnancy.
The study of equipment used in creating echocardiograms, such as the many types of transducers that convert sound to image, is covered in echocardiography instrumentation courses. A pulse Doppler effect is used by some, while a sustained Doppler effect is used by others. By analyzing features such as wave motion, wave amplitude, and wave brightness, students learn to read any test results produced by the instruments. Instrumentation-focused echocardiography courses would also cover how to analyze resolution and image contrast.
Students learn how to measure echoes created by bouncing sound waves off the heart while a patient is under supervised cardiovascular stress in stress echocardiography classes. In the context of echocardiography, stress usually refers to physical activity; the most common exercise for stress echocardiography is running or walking at a maximum rate on a treadmill. Students learn the entire framework of the heart and all of its cavities in echocardiography-related physiology courses, and students learn how to recognize and interpret sound patterns in sonography courses.