Transesophageal Echocardiography: An Introduction for Ultrasonographers

Transesophageal echocardiography is one of the new techniques available to ultrasound practitioners that uses intracavitary high-frequency phased array transducers. Transesophageal echocardiography provides diagnostic information in the patient that is difficult or impossible to image using standard transthoracic echocardiographic techniques. Presented here is an overview of transesophageal echocardiographic technique, a description of the anatomy demonstrated by using the technique, and the clinical indications for the transesophageal echocardiogram.