Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota each offer an echocardiography laboratory. These state-of-the-art laboratories have a tradition of clinical excellence, education and innovation. The echocardiography teams do more than 75,000 echocardiograms a year.
An echocardiogram is a test that uses sound waves to produce detailed images of the heart's valves, size, structure and function. It also can show blood flow through the heart and heart valves.
The team at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota also performs or reads echocardiograms at more than 20 centers throughout the Midwest, including some Mayo Clinic Health System locations.
You might undergo one or more of the following procedures in an echocardiography laboratory, depending on your situation:
- An echocardiogram performed on the surface of the chest.
- A test in which an ultrasound camera is inserted into the esophagus.
- Stress studies.
- Imaging tests using 2D and 3D echocardiography.
- Studies that check the blood flow and pressures inside the heart that don't require inserting a tube into your heart.
- Blood vessel studies to detect early changes related to atherosclerosis.
- A test that helps assess the health of the carotid artery.
- Tests that assess how well your blood vessels work.
Your doctor uses the results of these tests and a clinical evaluation to offer medical care and lifestyle counseling tailored to you.
You also might receive echocardiographic services during complex interventions in the catheterization laboratory (interventional echocardiography) or during open-heart surgery (intraoperative echocardiography).
Appointments
To be seen in one of Mayo Clinic's echocardiography laboratories, you'll need to be referred by your doctor. Not all services may be available at all locations.
Nationally recognized expertise
Mayo Clinic is top-ranked in more specialties than any other hospital and has been recognized as an Honor Roll member according to the U.S. News & World Report's 2024-2025 "Best Hospitals" rankings.
Mayo Clinic campuses are nationally recognized for expertise in cardiology and cardiovascular surgery:
- Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for heart and heart surgery by U.S. News & World Report.
- Mayo Clinic Children's Center in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota, and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2024–2025 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.