Intracardiac Echocardiography

An ultrasound of the heart is referred to as an echocardiogram. Typically, this procedure is performed by moving an ultrasound probe over a person’s chest to generate a real-time picture of the beating heart.

Intracardiac echocardiography is a special heart imaging technique in which your electrophysiologist uses a small ultrasound catheter to take pictures of the heart from within the heart itself. This allows your electrophysiologist to perform real-time imaging of your heart during your ablation procedure itself. Intracardiac echocardiography is safe, and allows your doctor to navigate within the heart with greater ease. This technology is routinely used during atrial fibrillation ablation procedures to visualize important cardiac structures such as the pulmonary veins. Intracardiac echocardiography is routinely performed in our Electrophysiology Laboratory.