This week I spent most of my time on clinics. One thing I would like to share is the nuclear heart scan. Patient will receive two nuclear scan for comparison, one is under rest condition, another one will be under exertion condition. For the exertion condition, patient will be hooked up with several electrode on chest in order to record ECG. Then patient will start to walk on treadmill, and the speed and the slope will gradually increase. If patient can continuously tolerate the increased speed and slope, then radioactive dye will be injected intravenously. Otherwise, Lexiscan will be injected intravenously to mimic the exercising state, which will dilate vessels. After completing the test and recovering, patient will immediately go to nuclear scan. When comparing the rest scan and exercising scan, normal heart tissue should uptake radioactive dye, especially under exercising condition, as shown in the following picture. The donut-like structure represent left heart chamber, and there are several views from different axis. If there is a dull area, it might be resulting from damaged heart tissue or coronary artery, especially when the dull area show in exercising scan. This test helps physician to understand the heart and vessel function.
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| Cardiac nuclear image |
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