Nuclear Imaging

Nuclear Cardiology includes radionuclide imaging of the heart during stress testing and also in resting patients.  Stress testing is frequently performed by exercising the patient on a treadmill; however, there are medication-based stress tests that are available for patients unable to adequately exercise on a treadmill.  The Heart Center has its own nuclear imaging camera so that stress testing with nuclear imaging can be safely and conveniently performed in the office rather than requiring a hospital visit.

Nuclear imaging greatly improves the accuracy of stress testing and adds important information to the test result such as localization of the area of the heart affected by poor circulation, the size of the area of heart muscle affected, and whether the heart muscle can be salvaged or is already scar tissue from a completed heart attack.  Such information helps to guide the Heart Center cardiologists in making the best decisions regarding treatment of each patient's coronary artery disease.  Additionally, the overall "ejection fraction" or heart pumping function can be measured further assisting Heart Center cardiologists in the assessment and management of our patients.

Several Bay Area Heart Center cardiologists are trained in the interpretation of nuclear cardiology studies including Dr. David Mokotoff, Dr. John Finn, Dr. Jeffrey Lehr and Dr. Fernando Salazar.