Cardiovascular Diagnosis & Imaging
The first step toward a healthy heart is to determine the type and extent of cardiovascular disease. Tennova Heart Institute offers advanced heart care, offering diagnostic equipment and expertise.
Experienced clinical cardiologists use a wide range of technologically advanced cardiac procedures to diagnose heart disease:
- Cardiac catheterization, or coronary angiogram, is an interventional cardiology procedure that provides real-time X-ray images (fluoroscopy) to show the heart's pumping ability, the health of the valves and arteries, as well as measure blood pressure. It's also used to collect biopsies and blood samples.
- Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), transesophogeal echocardiogram (TEE), and electrophysiology studies measure the heart's electrical activity and identify muscle damage that can cause heart disease. Portable devices such as a Holter monitor or event recorder measure a patient's heart activity throughout the day, over an extended period of time.
- Nuclear medicine scans utilize a small dose of radioactive material to reveal the structure and blood flow within the heart during exercise and rest, such as positron emission tomography (PET), thallium or myocardial perfusion scans.
- Non-invasive imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), computed tomography angiography (CTA), X-ray and echocardiograms, which use ultrasound, provide images of the heart muscle, valves, veins and arteries.