CARDIO DIAGNOSTICS

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Dr. Amonkar believes that clinical cardiology lies at the heart of cardiovascular disease evaluation and management. Hence, he devotes ample time for outpatient evaluation and diagnostics like 2D echocardiography, Stress test and Holter monitoring at the Clinic.  

An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a test that checks for problems with the electrical activity of your heart. It is a simple test that can be a part of your routine health check or advised for specific cardiac complaints such as chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting or palpitations.

A 2D echocardiogram, commonly called ‘2D echo’, shows the graphic detail of the heart’s movement. During this test, high-frequency sound waves called ultrasound provide pictures of the heart’s valves and chambers. This allows your cardiologist to evaluate the pumping action of the heart.

A stress test, sometimes called a treadmill test (TMT) or exercise test, helps your doctor find out how well your heart handles its workload during physical exercise. It can show if there’s a lack of blood supply through the arteries that go to the heart. It also helps to assess physical capacity.

 An Exercise Stress Echo combines treadmill exercise with ultrasound imaging of the heart before and immediately after exercise. It helps detect reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, valve problems, and exercise-induced changes in heart function more accurately than a standard treadmill test.

 A Dobutamine Stress Echo is used when a patient cannot exercise adequately on a treadmill. A medicine called dobutamine is given to make the heart work harder while ultrasound images are taken. It helps identify blocked arteries, assess heart muscle viability, and evaluate heart function under stress.

 A Transesophageal Echo (TEE) is a specialised heart ultrasound performed using a small probe passed through the food pipe (esophagus) to obtain very clear images of the heart. It helps evaluate heart valves, clots, infections, congenital defects, and complex structural heart conditions more precisely.

 Myocardial Contrast Echo is an advanced echocardiography test that uses special ultrasound contrast to improve heart imaging. It helps provide clearer assessment of heart chamber function, wall motion abnormalities, blood flow, and conditions like heart muscle damage or clots inside the heart.

 Speckle Tracking Echo with Global Longitudinal Strain (GLS) is an advanced heart ultrasound that detects subtle heart muscle weakness even before the pumping function appears abnormal. It is especially useful in hypertension, diabetes, chemotherapy monitoring, and early heart failure detection.

Holter monitoring involves continuous digital recording of ECG for 24 hours. The monitor can be worn during your regular daily activities. Thus it helps the physician to correlate symptoms of dizziness, palpitations or blackouts with ECG changes. It is likely to detect an abnormal heart rhythm than just an ECG.

Holter monitoring involves continuous digital recording of ECG for 24 hours. The monitor can be worn during your regular daily activities. Thus it helps the physician to correlate symptoms of dizziness, palpitations or blackouts with ECG changes. It is likely to detect an abnormal heart rhythm than just an ECG.

The test allows continuous monitoring of blood pressure throughout the day and is useful to determine whether you are a dipper or a non-dipper, that is to say whether or not your blood pressure falls at night as compared to daytime values. Absence of nighttime dipping is associated with higher risk.