Echocardiography, stress
Echocardiography, stress: A supplement to the routine exercise cardiac stress test. During stress echocardiography, the sound waves of ultrasound are used to produce images of the heart at rest and at the peak of exercise.
In a heart with normal blood supply, all segments of the left ventricle (the major pumping chamber of the heart) exhibit enhanced contractions of the heart muscle during peak exercise. Conversely, in the setting of coronary artery disease (CAD), if a segment of the left ventricle does not receive optimal blood flow during exercise, that segment will demonstrate reduced contractions of heart muscle relative to the rest of the heart on the exercise echocardiogram.
Stress echocardiography is very useful in enhancing the interpretation of the routine exercise cardiac stress test (ECST). It can be used to exclude significant CAD in patients who are suspected of having a “false-positive” ECST, a falsely abnormally result on the screening ECST test.
Read Also:
- Echocardiography, transesophageal
Echocardiography, transesophageal: A diagnostic test which is done through the esophagus and which employs ultrasound waves to make images of the heart chambers, valves and surrounding structures. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) may be used, for example, in the treatment of children having heart surgery. TEE has unusually accurate imaging capabilities that permit the identification of previously […]
- Echolalia
Echolalia: The involuntary parrotlike repetition (echoing) of a word or phrase just spoken by another person. Echolalia is a feature of schizophrenia (especially the catatonic form), Tourette syndrome, and some other disorders. From echo + the Greek lalia, a form of speech.
- Echopraxia
Echopraxia: The involuntary imitation of the movements of another person. Echopraxia is a feature of schizophrenia (especially the catatonic form), Tourette syndrome, and some other neurologic diseases. From echo + the Greek praxia meaning action.
- Eclampsia
Convulsions (seizures) occurring with pregnancy-associated high blood pressure and having no other cause.
- Echovirus
Echovirus: A group of viruses found in the intestinal tract. The ‘echo’ part of the name is an acronym for enteric cytopathic human orphan viruses. ‘Orphan’ implied that these viruses were not associated with any disease. However, it is now known that echoviruses can cause a number of different diseases, including rashes, diarrhea, respiratory infections […]