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An essential component of assessing your heart health is evaluating how well your heart muscle works as blood flows through various arteries, valves, and chambers.
A nuclear heart scan, also called a nuclear stress test or myocardial perfusion imaging, provides high-definition imagery that helps us do that.
Our team at Advanced Heart Care Associates in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada, is committed to providing personalized, comprehensive care that effectively manages or prevents chronic disease.
We’re happy to walk through the basics of a nuclear heart scan, its benefits, and what you can expect during the study.
Nuclear heart scan basics
A nuclear heart scan is an advanced stress test that helps us see how well blood flows to and through your heart muscle, both at rest and under stress (such as during exercise).
It helps us detect things like:
- Blocked or narrowed coronary arteries
- Areas of the heart that aren’t getting enough oxygen
- Previous damage from a heart attack
- Effectiveness of current treatment
- Monitoring chronic conditions such as heart failure
The term nuclear might sound scary, but it simply refers to a small amount of a radioactive tracer (usually technetium or thallium) we inject into your bloodstream.
This tracer takes it beyond the traditional stress test by helping create clear, detailed images of your heart using a special camera.
What happens during a nuclear heart scan?
Your Advanced Heart Care Associates provider discusses pertinent details before the test. Generally, however, the whole process usually takes a few hours and includes the following steps:
1. Preparation
You may be asked to refrain from eating or drinking for a few hours before the test and to avoid caffeine for 24 hours, including chocolate, tea, and decaf. Your cardiologist provides clear instructions about whether to take your medications as usual or delay them before the test.
Don’t forget to wear comfortable clothes and shoes if you're doing the exercise version of the test. Bring a book or something to pass the time since there’s some waiting between steps.
2. Resting scan
This portion of the test provides images of how your heart functions at rest. You lie on a table, and we inject a small amount of the radioactive tracer into your vein. After a short wait, a special camera (gamma camera) takes pictures of your heart at rest.
3. Stress phase
This part tells us how well your heart functions when working hard. We can do this two ways:
Exercise
You walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike with gradually increasing intensity.
Medication
If you can’t exercise, we use medication that mimics the effects of exercise on your heart.
4. Post-exercise imaging
Once your heart is stressed, we inject a second dose of the tracer and take more images.
What to expect after the study
The amount of radiation is small, equivalent to a routine X-ray, and is naturally eliminated from your body over 24-48 hours. Drinking plenty of water afterward may help speed up the process.
Side effects are rare, but some people might feel a little flushed or experience a brief headache from the medication used during the stress portion.
Usually, you hear from your cardiologist within a few days. We review the images, assess how well blood flows to and through your heart, and determine if further tests or treatments are necessary.
Don’t take a chance with your heart health. Schedule a visit at Advanced Heart Care Associates today. Call us or request an appointment online.