Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Echocardiographer
Introduction
Cardiac sonographer (also known as echocardiographer, or cardiac ultrasound technologist) is a medical profession of sonographers that specialize in the anatomy and function of the heart. It is a technical job that in the USA has traditionally required an Associates degree in Echo and passing a National Registry exam, but more and more often is requiring a Bachelors degree as the field gets more developed and complicated. Much like how a general sonographer would use sonography (ultrasound) to view a fetus inside a pregnant woman, cardiac sonographers use the same technology to examine and evaluate the heart: chamber sizes, arrangement of the parts, muscle function, valve function and blood flow. Cardiac sonographers typically do not make diagnoses, but rather report all that they find to a cardiologist for further analysis. Salaries range from $20 to $50 an hour.
External links
The American Society of Echocardiography
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]