echocardiogram, what's it like?

[SnowyMouse]

I'm due to have an echocardiogram very soon, what is it like? what do they do and how long does it take?

I had to remove bra for mine, they put jelly on you and use the same 'tool' that they use for scanning babies basically, to see your heart. I found it uncomfortable if they had to dig into my ribs to get a better view, but it certainly wasn't painful and on the whole it wasn't a bad experience.

Does anyone know if a CT scan will diagnose as many conditions as an echo? I've been looking it up, as I now have an appointment for a ct, and it seems like the symptoms I have are usually listed as diagnosed by an echo, and the ct seems to be more looking at blood vessels rather than heart function etc. He did agree to my request for an echo, but the appointment only mentions the ct. I have no idea how to challenge this, or if I need both. Any ideas gratefully received

At our hospital CT scans are done by the Radiology department and the echo by cardiology so you would get completely separate letters for each one. If you want to check then you could ring the Cardiology secretary and ask.

Yy pp & I had both ct scan & echo to diagnose my heart issues.

Thanks for replies. I was thinking that starfish, but for some reason I thought the ultrasound would have been a shorter waiting list than the ct, and would have been my first appointment

I used to chaperone loads of these procedures when I worked in Cardiology OP - they're painless and quite fascinating!

I'm not looking forward to the dye! I've read you feel like you've wet yourself Do you know if it shows through the skin until its flushed out?!

I have had a few carried out.I would say they are not painful but can be uncomfortable when they press down hard.Mine have taken about 15/20 minutes each time.

Love it is an odd sensation, it’s sort of feels like a whoosh & you can feel a bit hot but doesn’t last long I have never noticed it showing through the skin though.
Yy pp echo doesn’t hurt, but can be a bit uncomfortable when they press down on the chest, sometimes I get a bit of bruising round my rib area, I’m quite slight though also I think depends on the practitioner some are a bit more heavy handed than others.