Cardiology and Heart Failure

Nuclear Cardiology & Cardiac CT

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the western world. Each year in the U.S.A, more than 500,000 men and women die from coronary artery disease. During the past two decades, major strides have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Nuclear Cardiology has played a pivotal role in establishing the diagnosis of heart disease and in the assessment of disease extent and the prediction of outcomes in the setting of coronary artery disease. Nuclear cardiology studies use noninvasive techniques to assess myocardial blood flow, evaluate the pumping function of the heart as well as visualize the size and location of a heart attack. Among the techniques of nuclear cardiology, myocardial perfusion imaging is the most widely used.

A cardiac CT scan is a painless imaging test that uses x rays to take many detailed pictures of your heart and its blood vessels. Different CT scanners are used for different purposes. A multi detector CT is a very fast type of CT scanner that can produce high-quality pictures of the beating heart and can detect calcium or blockages in the coronary arteries. An electron beam CT scanner also can show calcium in coronary arteries. The information obtained can help evaluate whether you are at increased risk for heart attack.