Echocardiograms at Seattle Children's
Echocardiograms, or ultrasounds, are used to look at the heart of a child or fetus as it works. It is a simple, painless procedure done in the same way that ultrasound pictures are taken of a fetus in a pregnant woman's womb.
We perform thousands of echocardiograms a year, including many conducted with a special live video hookup at several hospitals outside Seattle.
Why is an echocardiogram done?
A cardiologist or sonographer takes an echocardiogram of a child or a fetus to evaluate the function of the heart muscle and look for heart abnormalities.
An echocardiogram might be requested by your doctor to evaluate a heart murmur or for a number of other conditions. Echocardiograms enable doctors to make very accurate diagnoses of abnormalities in heart structure and function.
The sound waves may also be used to measure the speed of blood flow through the heart and the blood pressure in different chambers of the heart.
What's special about the experience at Seattle Children's?
Children's conducts at least 700 echocardiograms on children every month, a huge volume. Through our partnership with the University of Washington, we have access to the latest research on this important technology.
In addition to our routine pediatric echocardiograms, we provide a number of specialized services, including:
- Fetal echocardiogram, read by our doctors who specialize in diagnosing fetal heart defects
- Intraoperative transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE), performed during virtually all heart surgeries, and occasionally for other surgical specialties
- Echocardiography in our regional clinics
Telemedicine
We also provide telemedicine services that send a live feed of an echocardiogram from remote hospitals to Children's, where one of our doctors can help guide the procedure to get the best images. The doctors can also consult with the family using an audio link and camera mounted in both locations.
Telemedicine saves patients the expense and time of travel and can be of great value for urgent newborn evaluations.
Newborns with a suspected heart condition in Kennewick, for example, no longer need to be transported hundreds of miles away for a cardiac diagnosis. A child in Wenatchee with a heart murmur detected in a sports physical doesn't have to wait for his echocardiogram to be mailed to Seattle, or for a cardiologist's next regional visit.
Our doctors can diagnose much more accurately using a live echocardiogram than they can review a still image sent in the mail.
Our hospital performs live echocardiograms on children and fetuses in Bellingham, Kennewick, Kirkland and Wenatchee. We perform 450 live fetal echocardiograms a year in these regional clinics.
Who's on the team?
We have nine sonographers registered in pediatrics, the most in the region. Dr. Mark Lewin, director of the Echocardiography Laboratory, is a world-recognized pediatric cardiologist specializing in echocardiography.