Can a regular echocardiogram detect atherosclerosis?

No: A standard echocardiogram (echo) does not evaluate atherosclerosis, although if there has been a heart attack and heart muscle damage the effects may be able to be visualized. A test like a stress test (with or without myocardial perfusion imaging), coronary ct/mri and cardiac catheterization are often employed to detect atherosclerosis.A stress echo is designed to evaluate for the presence of cad.

Artery Echo, Yes: Atherosclerosis: an accumulation of white blood cells in the walls of arteries can be seen on ultrasound images of artery walls. The artery wall becomes thickened & reflect the sound waves more intensely. The normal wall smooth muscle is echo-lucent, the key sign of its location in us images. However arteries are deep, thus surface images are limited to large arteries - ivus is the gold standard.