What help is echocardiography in Heart Failure?

An echocardiogram is really important in terms of diagnosing heart failure and what specific type of heart failure someone has. It can really guide treatment and help you understand how you're responding to treatment. It can also identify potential causes itself of heart failure. So for example, if there are valve problems, it may help to understand that the valve problem itself has caused the heart failure. It's a really useful test and it's non-invasive, which means that nothing is put inside you. It's an ultrasound probe on the front of the chest, much like pregnant mothers have when their babies are looked at. So probe is passed over the front part of the chest and looked at, and the heart is looked at in different angles to get an idea of how well the heart muscle is pumping.