Nuclear Cardiology is the use of a mildly radioactive drug and a machine that produces a picture of the distribution of the drug in the patient. This picture is similar to an X-Ray but the radiation is detected as it is emitted from the patient. The imaging machine, in essence, is only a radiation detector. The distribution of the radioactive drug in the heart may be used to determine the presence and severity of heart disease.

The radioactive drug, RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL, may be administered while the patient is exercised on a treadmill or after administration of another drug that causes the heart to stress. This exercise or STRESS examination is then completed using the radiation detection machine otherwise known as a Gamma Camera to produce images or SCANS of the radiopharmaceutical distribution, PERFUSION, in the muscle of the heart. Another phase of the nuclear cardiology examination may be performed with the patient at REST rather than being stressed at the time of the radiopharmaceutical injection. A comparison of the perfusion at stress and rest, or rest and stress, provides the physician with valuable, comparative, diagnostic information to evaluate issue viability.

Several other types of nuclear cardiology procedures have been developed using the same types of materials. The patient may be injected with the radiopharmaceutical while being imaged by the gamma camera. The quantity of blood passing through the heart, FIRST PASS, is determined by measurement of the blood ejected when the heart contracts or the EJECTION FRACTION. In another nuclear cardiology procedure, the patient's blood is made slightly radioactive and the patient's blood in the heart is scanned in a moving sequence of images showing the motion of the heart wall, rather than the blood going through the heart, to evaluate the conditions of the heart. The ability to produce multiple of GATED images. Some images are referred to as multiple gated acquisition or MUGA procedures.

The agent used in nuclear cardiology is slightly radioactive, a radiopharmaceutical, and thus it is regulated as both a pharmaceutical and as a radioactive material. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, of state regulatory agencies in agreement with the NRC, AGREEMENT STATE, control the radiation aspects of these agents. The drug nature of these agents is approved and regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration, FDA. The radioactive elements, RADIOISOTOPES, commonly used in nuclear cardiology are Thallium and Technetium.

Nuclear Cardiology is a valuable diagnostic tool, which, in the hands of a qualified expert equipped with modern technology, assists in the identification and quantification of cardiovascular disease.

For more information about this subject contact NCS:  ncs@nuclearcardiology.com 

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