What is an ECG?

What it tells you: Heart structure and pumping function

Why it matters: Detects valve problems, muscle weakness, or chamber enlargement

What to expect: Painless ultrasound, about 30 minutes

An ECG is like a snapshot of your heart's activity. It's a simple and helpful test that shows how your heart is beating, its rhythm, rate, and electrical activity.

What Happens During the Test?

Sticky Patches: You'll have ten small sticky patches, called electrodes, placed on your arms, legs, and chest. These patches are like tiny sensors.

Connecting Wires: These electrodes are connected to an ECG machine by thin wires. Think of the machine as a smart camera for your heart.

Recording Signals: The ECG machine "listens" to the electrical signals produced by your heart when it beats. These signals travel through your body to the electrodes, and the machine picks them up.

Creating a Picture: The electrical activity is turned into a picture. It's like a heart signature that's unique to you. This picture is usually printed on paper.

What Does a Normal ECG Look Like?

A normal ECG shows a specific pattern. It looks like a series of waves and spikes. Each part of the pattern represents a different phase of your heart's activity. The ECG helps Dr Cheong identify if there are any irregularities in your heart rhythm or if everything is working as it should. It's a quick and painless way for them to get a snapshot of your heart's health.

So, in a nutshell, an ECG is like taking a picture of your heart's electrical dance, helping doctors understand how it's performing. 

What is a 24-Hour ECG monitor?

Tracks your heartbeat over a full day

Useful for intermittent palpitations or unexplained dizziness

This is like having a personal heart monitor that keeps track of your heart's electrical activity continuously for a whole day or more. It helps Dr Cheong catch irregularities that might not show up during a short test.

What Happens During the Test?

Electrodes: Small sticky patches called electrodes are placed on your chest. These are like tiny sensors that pick up your heart's electrical signals.

Wires and Recorder: Wires are attached to the electrodes and are taped down. These wires connect to a small portable recorder that you wear on a belt around your waist. It's like carrying a little heart watcher with you.

Normal Activities: While you're wearing this heart monitor, you can do everything you normally do—walk, work, eat, and sleep. The only thing you can't do is take a bath or shower to avoid damaging the recorder.

Comfort Note: The electrodes can be a bit sticky, so if you have sensitive skin, it's good to let the team know.

Return the Recorder: Once the monitoring period is over (usually 24 to 48 hours, but up to 14 days), you return the recorder. The data recorded is then analyzed by the medical team to see if there are any irregularities or patterns in your heart's activity.

Why Do You Need It?

Detecting Irregular Heartbeats: It helps in finding irregular heart rhythms, especially those that might not happen all the time. Conditions like atrial fibrillation can be detected this way.

Investigating Palpitations: If you're experiencing occasional palpitations (feeling your heart pounding or fluttering), but they don't happen when you're at the doctor's office, this test can help uncover the cause.

Is It Painful or Risky?

No, it's completely safe and painless. The only thing to note is that the electrodes can be a bit sticky, but you can let the team know if you have sensitive skin.

So, think of it as having a heart companion for a day, silently recording and helping Dr Cheong to understand more about how your heart is doing! 

What is a 24-hour blood pressure monitor?

Provide a more accurate assessment of your blood pressure control over a 24-hour period.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is like having a personal blood pressure companion for a day. It helps measure and manage high blood pressure by recording your blood pressure readings over a 24-hour period while you go about your daily activities. Here's a simpler breakdown:

What is it?

Imagine a tiny device with a cuff attached to your arm, measuring your blood pressure regularly throughout the day and night. This device records the highs and lows of your blood pressure as you live your life.

Why use a 24 hour blood pressure monitor?

Confirming Hypertension: It helps confirm if you indeed have high blood pressure.

Understanding Daily Patterns: Shows how your blood pressure changes during your daily routines and sleep. This can be crucial, as your blood pressure naturally fluctuates.

Monitoring Medication Effectiveness: Checks how well your medication is controlling your blood pressure throughout the day. It helps your doctor adjust your treatment if needed.

Identifying Cardiovascular Risk: Detects changes in blood pressure readings at home versus in the healthcare provider's office. This comparison helps assess your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Detecting Abnormal Changes: It's a valuable tool to catch abnormal blood pressure changes that might not be noticed with occasional checks.

How it works?

Wearing the Device: You wear the cuff on your arm and a small device on a strap or belt. It's like a tiny blood pressure detective that goes wherever you go.

Continuous Monitoring: Unlike the quick readings you get in a healthcare provider's office, this device takes multiple readings throughout the day and night. It's like having your blood pressure checked every 15 to 30 minutes during the day and every 60 minutes at night.

Measuring Heart Rate: It doesn't just check your blood pressure; it also keeps tabs on how fast your heart is beating.

Data Analysis: Your healthcare provider then takes all this data to calculate your average blood pressure over the 24-hour period. They look for patterns, like how your blood pressure changes during different activities and even while you sleep.

So, it's like a day-long blood pressure diary, helping Dr Cheong to understand how your blood pressure behaves in different situations and making sure your treatment plan is just right for you. Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

What is an Echocardiogram scan?

What it tells you: Heart structure and pumping function

Why it matters: Detects valve problems, muscle weakness, or chamber enlargement

What to expect: Painless ultrasound, about 30 minutes

Think of a transthoracic echocardiogram as a special kind of ultrasound for your heart. You know how doctors use ultrasounds for pregnant women to see the baby inside the belly? Well, this test is like that, but for your heart!

Here's what it helps the doctor find out:

• How Well Your Heart is Doing: It shows how your heart is pumping blood and also how it's relaxing between beats.

• Checking the Doors of Your Heart (Valves): Your heart has doors (valves) that open and close to let blood flow where it needs to. This test helps the doctor see if these doors are working like they should.

• Measuring Heart Size and Thickness: The test gives information about how big your heart is and how thick its walls are. This is important to know if everything is the right size and shape.

• Looking for Any Birth Heart Problems: Sometimes, people are born with heart problems. This test helps the doctor see if everything in your heart formed the way it should have from the beginning.

• Checking the Big Tubes Near Your Heart: It also looks at the big blood vessels around your heart to make sure they're in good shape.

So, it's like a super helpful camera that takes pictures of your heart to make sure everything is working just right! And don't worry, it's painless and doesn't hurt at all. They just put some goo on your chest, and the doctor moves a small device around to get the pictures. Easy peasy! Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

What is Stress Echocardiography?

Stress echocardiography is like a special test for your heart. It helps Dr Cheong see how your heart muscles and valves are doing when they have to work harder. Dr Cheong can make your heart work more by having you exercise on a special bicycle (preferred method), or if you are unable to cycle or exercise, he might use medicines like dobutamine to stimulate the heart.

Why Do I Need It?

Your doctor might suggest stress echocardiography for a few reasons:

To check for coronary heart disease.

To see if a part of your heart that's not moving much is still healthy.

To evaluate how your heart valves are working.

To understand your heart function along with symptoms and changes in the ECG (electrocardiogram).

To estimate changes in blood pressures in the arteries of your lungs.

How Do I Prepare?

The preparation depends on the type of stress test:

For exercise stress tests: Wear comfy clothes, especially pants, and bring your inhaler if you have asthma. Don't eat too much right before the test but keep hydrated with water. Avoid certain medications for 48 hours before the test (such as beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers).

For dobutamine stress tests: Don't eat for at least 2 hours before, but keep hydrated with water. Avoid certain medications for 48 hours before the test (such as beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers).

What Happens During the Examination?

You'll need to take off your upper body clothes so they can put sensors on your chest. The whole thing takes about 30–40 minutes. 

Exercise stress test: They make you exercise, increasing the workload every few minutes. They record your heart's activity and do echocardiography at different times.

Medication-induced stress tests: You lie down, and they give you medicine through a small tube in your vein. They monitor your blood pressure, heart activity, and do echocardiography. The test stops when they reach a target or if you ask, especially if there are any problems.

Remember, the goal is to understand how your heart responds when it's working hard. It helps Dr Cheong figure out how healthy your heart is and if there are any concerns. Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

What is a Cardiac MRI scan?

Provides detailed images of heart muscle, valves, and chambers

Best for complex cases or ongoing monitoring

Think of cardiac MRI as a super advanced camera for your heart. Instead of using X-rays, it uses a strong magnetic field, radio waves, and a computer to take really detailed pictures of your heart and the things around it.

Here's what it helps Dr Jun Cheong to figure out:

Heart Anatomy and Blood Flow: It gives doctors a super clear view of your heart, its valves, and blood vessels. This helps them see how everything is shaped and how blood is flowing.

Heart Size and Function: It measures how big your heart is and how well it's working. This is really helpful for checking on people, including kids, who were born with heart issues.

Checking Blood Flow to the Heart: If there's not enough blood getting to your heart muscles (like in coronary artery disease), this test can catch that. It can also spot scars in the heart after a heart attack.

Figuring Out Heart Muscle Issues: The MRI can tell if there's something wrong with the muscles of your heart.

Detecting Inflammation: If there's any inflammation in your heart, the lining around it, or the blood vessels, this test can pick it up.

Investigating Funny Heart Beats or Unexplained Fainting: If your heart is doing weird things or if you've fainted for no clear reason, this MRI helps the doctors figure out what's going on.

Checking Heart Valves: It looks at the valves in your heart to see if they're too tight or leaking.

Diagnosing and Monitoring Heart Conditions in Children and Adults: It's really useful for keeping an eye on people with heart problems, whether they were born with them or developed them later in life.

Planning Treatment: It helps doctors plan the best way to treat heart problems.

Monitoring Over Time: If you have a heart condition, the MRI can track how it's changing over time. This is important for conditions like heart failure or issues with big blood vessels.

Evaluating Effects of Medications or Procedures: After you've had a treatment or taken medicine, the MRI can show if it's making a positive difference.

Checking for Masses: If there's anything unusual in or around your heart, the MRI can spot it.

The cool part is, it does all of this without using any radiation, and it usually takes about 45-60 minutes. Sometimes, they might use a special dye to get even clearer pictures. So, it's like a superpower camera that helps Dr Jun Cheong understand about your heart! Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

What is a heart CT scan (CTCA)?

Visualises the coronary arteries for blockages or narrowing

Non-invasive, fast, and accurate

Here's what it helps Dr Jun Cheong find out and why it's useful:

Checking for Blocked Arteries: The CT scan is like a detective looking for any narrow or blocked roads (arteries) that supply blood to your heart muscle. This is crucial because blocked arteries can lead to heart problems.

Assessing Heart Valves and Aorta: Sometimes, after an ultrasound (echocardiogram), doctors want to take a closer look at the heart valves or the big blood vessel called the aorta. The CT scan helps them see the details better.

Examining Congenital Heart Disease: In people born with heart issues, the CT scan helps doctors get a clearer view of the structures that might not be very clear on an echo.

Providing Detailed Heart Images: The CT scan gives really detailed pictures of your heart from different angles. It's like a super close-up view that helps doctors understand the heart's structure.

Quick and Non-Invasive: The best part is, it's quick and doesn't involve any surgery. You just lie down, and the machine does its work.

So, in a nutshell, the CT scan of the heart is like a super camera that helps Dr Jun Cheong see inside your heart and blood vessels without any surgery. It's a valuable tool for figuring out what's going on and planning the best way to keep your heart healthy! Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

What is a transoesophageal echocardiogram?

Imagine an echocardiogram as a way for Dr Cheong to take pictures of your heart using sound waves, kind of like an ultrasound but without any radiation. Now, a transoesophageal echocardiogram is a special kind of echocardiogram that gets even clearer pictures of certain parts of your heart.

Here's how it works:

• The Probe: Instead of putting the ultrasound device on your chest, they use a small probe that's like a thin tube, about the size of your index finger.

• Where it Goes: This tube doesn't go on your chest; it goes into your mouth, down your throat, and into your Oesophagus. The Oesophagus is very close to the back of your heart.

• Why the Oesophagus: By getting close to the heart from the back, the pictures become super clear. It's like taking photos from the best angle to see all the important structures and valves of your heart.

• How it Works: The probe sends out sound waves, and as they bounce back or "echo" off your heart, a computer turns these echoes into moving images. This allows doctors to see detailed pictures of your heart in real-time.

Now, let's talk about what doctors can see with a transoesophageal echocardiogram:

• Heart Structures: They can check the structure of your heart, like the walls, chambers, and valves, to see if everything looks healthy or if there's any issue.

• Pumping Strength: It helps doctors assess how strong your heart is pumping, a crucial aspect of heart function.

• Blood Flow: Using a technique called Doppler echocardiography, they can measure how blood is flowing through your heart and detect any issues like tight or leaky valves and holes.

• 3D Views: With 3D echocardiography, they can create three-dimensional images of your heart, allowing for a more detailed and comprehensive view from multiple angles.

• Assessing Infections: It's great for checking infective endocarditis, which is an infection of the inner lining of the heart.

• Detecting Aneurysms and Blood Clots: It's helpful in identifying issues like aortic aneurysms, dissections, blood clots, and masses in the heart.

So, think of a transoesophageal echocardiogram as a special camera that gets really up-close pictures of your heart, helping Dr Jun Cheong see things they might not be able to see as well with a regular ultrasound. Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com

Please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jun Cheong if further information is required @ enquiries@jcheong.com