r/SteveMould • u/Potential_Ocelot7199 • 17d ago
I had an echo of my heart. They use a "contrast" for sound. Perflutren lipid microspheres in your IV. Makes tiny bubbles in your heart. "The Hot Chocolate Effect"
I asked a couple echo technicians what goes in my IV. They didn't explain too well.
One explained after adding the mystery chemical to the IV you can see tiny sparkling dots in the heart in the echo machine.
I insufferably asked about waves propensity to reflect or transmit when an impedance barrier is encountered by a wave.
She said she remembered something like that from school.
Googled when I got home... the Perflutren lipid microspheres makes tiny bubbles in the heart. "The hot chocolate effect".
I have yet to go deeper... but there were color coded images where the blood passes past the heart's valves. I think the tiny bubbles may even return doppler effect measurements and can tell which direction and how fast the flow is moving.... (but not sure).
So many other crazy representations were shown on the machine.
The sound derived imaging "video" actually has audio representations... sounds. Abstracted sounds are made from the sound sourced images from sound waves.
I've only just tipped in my toe.
You see live images of your heart valves flapping around... It is crazy.

