With the increasing incidence of heart disease all around the country, major pivotal advancements have been made in the world of cardiology. We strive to provide such new and effective imaging techniques, helping us diagnose and treat our patients in the best way possible. Nuclear cardiology is one of such imaging modalities that cardiologists adopted in recent years to help view cardiac abnormalities.
This subset of general cardiology requires your healthcare provider to inject a low-dose of radioactive substance into your blood vessels. This substance eventually reaches your heart and helps visualize the blood flow through your heart muscle. There are a handful of procedures that are used to evaluate your heart’s health using this technique such as Nuclear stress testing, Radionuclide Ventriculography, and Cardiac PET. Nuclear stress testing also known as Myocardial Perfusion Imaging (MPI), helps your physician assess blood flow through your heart muscle while you exercise. This is done by injecting a small amount of radioactive tracer into your blood vessels while your heart is viewed with a specialized camera. Similarly, Radionuclide Ventriculography helps assess the way your heart contracts and functions.