Question about Echocardiogram - Heart Disorders Message Board

Divation · 07-26-2007, 12:59 PM

I just had an echocardiogram done today and when I was looking at the monitor, my blood flow in my heart was completely mixed. Isn't there supposed to be red blood in the atrium and like blue blood in the ventricle? Because when I was looking at my heart beat, there was no distinction between the two. It was all mixed. It looked like I had a pretty bad leak or something. I told the technician that didn't look normal to me and I asked him if I had mitral valve prolapse, because that's what I was being checked for (I pretty much assumed I had it) and he said it did look like I have a small leak. Which I thought. But the way my blood was, it looked pretty bad. I guess I'm just wondering if that's normal for a prolapse for my blood to be that mixed with eachother?

Fizzickle · 07-26-2007, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divation

I just had an echocardiogram done today and when I was looking at the monitor, my blood flow in my heart was completely mixed. Isn't there supposed to be red blood in the atrium and like blue blood in the ventricle? Because when I was looking at my heart beat, there was no distinction between the two. It was all mixed. It looked like I had a pretty bad leak or something. I told the technician that didn't look normal to me and I asked him if I had mitral valve prolapse, because that's what I was being checked for (I pretty much assumed I had it) and he said it did look like I have a small leak. Which I thought. But the way my blood was, it looked pretty bad. I guess I'm just wondering if that's normal for a prolapse for my blood to be that mixed with eachother?

The colors you see on the echocardiogram are measures of blood velocities, not actual colors.

started04 · 07-26-2007, 06:04 PM

Divation, I saw the screen on the echo monitor during my test. The doppler software (color codes) showed red for normal flow, and back flow was a different color. The smaller the leak orifice the greater the velocity due to gradient pressure and the height provides a measurement.

I'm not aware of a color that measures or distinquishes blood velocity, but it sounds reasonable there can be a different color for velocity given the technology available.

The echo is the gold standard for testing valve compliance. During systole (pumping phase) there shouldn't be a mixture of colors! If that was happening (mixing colors), I would question the correctness and proper calibration of the instrument because it appears there is a malfunction. A mixture of colors would be too confusing and not very helpful.

Divation · 07-27-2007, 08:07 AM

LOL Okay. He just said "blood flow" so that's what I assumed. Thanks.