i'm oran frankel an emergency physician focused echocardiography can provide an immense amount of information in patients presenting with chest pain dyspnea or abnormal vital signs part of the protocol usually involves a subcostal view of the heart and here i'll show how to perform that with a phased array scanner on the cardiac preset to do the scan i place the probe below the xiphoid process generally aiming up towards the patient's left shoulder and a bit of gentle pressure is required while keeping the probe parallel to the floor ideally i want to fan through the heart until i can see all four quadrants i'm going to rotate through to see all the chambers of the heart in their fullness make sure i don't see any significant pericardial effusion or dysfunction of any of the chambers and in that short period of time i get an immense amount of information that can help facilitate my diagnosis and management of that patient you
