At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, our vast experience in noninvasive heart testing helps us deliver an excellent, comfortable experience. We offer nuclear stress tests and other nuclear heart scans using detectors that reduce radiation doses and test time. We also deliver fast answers and effective treatment plans.
What Is Cardiac Nuclear Medicine?
Cardiac nuclear medicine uses special medicines called radioactive tracers to see how well blood flows in and around the heart. You receive the tracer intravenously (IV).
Radioactive tracers involve a safe, microscopic dose of radiation. They are absorbed by the heart and release radiation. Special scanners called nuclear detectors find these radiation particles and turn them into pictures.
Nuclear stress tests and MUGA (multigated acquisition) scans are common types of nuclear medicine imaging tests. You may have a nuclear heart scan:
- When your heart is at rest
- During exercise
- After doctors stress your heart using medication
Why You May Need a Nuclear Heart Scan
Doctors use cardiac nuclear medicine to diagnose heart problems, including:
- Cardiomyopathy and cardiac amyloidosis (a type of cardiomyopathy where abnormal proteins replace normal heart muscle)
- Coronary heart disease (a buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries)
- Damage caused by cancer treatments such as chemotherapy (cardio-oncology is a new medical field focused on heart care during cancer treatment)
Nuclear heart scans are also a great alternative for people who need stress tests but are unable to exercise. They also are helpful when echocardiograms don’t provide clear enough images.
About Nuclear Stress Tests
Nuclear stress tests take pictures of your heart before and after it’s put under stress. Doctors use exercise or medication that stresses your heart for this test. Nuclear stress tests (also called myocardial perfusions scans and cardiac perfusion scans) show:
- Heart structure
- Heart function
- Blockages or partial blockages in the heart’s arteries
- Whether heart treatments are working
- If you would benefit from cardiac rehab
Before your nuclear stress test, we make sure you know what to expect, including foods or medications to avoid. We also answer your questions and concerns. During the test:
- We put an IV in your arm. We inject the radioactive tracer into your body via the IV.
- You wait as your heart absorbs the tracer. This typically takes 15 to 40 minutes.
- The nuclear detector scans your heart to show how well it’s working while at rest (resting scan).
- We attach small sticky sensors (electrodes) to your chest. They connect to an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) machine, which measures your heart’s electrical activity.
- You exercise on a treadmill until you reach the target heart rate. We gradually increase the intensity while monitoring your comfort level, blood pressure and heart function.
- We give you another dose of the radioactive tracer, so we can get images of your heart immediately after exercise (stress scan). If you are unable to exercise, we can stress your heart with medications that wear off quickly.
- We watch you as your heart rate returns to normal.
- The tracer leaves your body through urination.
Nuclear Heart Scans: The Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Advantage
We offer the highest quality cardiac imaging available. For more than a decade, our nuclear labs have had accreditation from the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL). To earn this distinction, ICANL rigorously reviews our daily operations and how they affect the quality of care we provide. Only the highest quality labs have ICANL accreditation.
We also offer:
- Expertise: All our staff have certification from the Nuclear Medicine Technology Certification Board. It’s the highest level of certification available for nuclear medicine technologists. It ensures we have the highest level of staff expertise available.
- Latest technology: We were among the first in the world to have groundbreaking nuclear detectors that cut radiation doses by half. These advanced scanners also deliver accurate diagnoses in less time and improve outcomes. Technicians scan the heart for six to seven minutes instead of the traditional 20 to 30 minutes—with no sacrifice in image quality. As a result, we have some of the highest catheterization correlation rates in the country. Catheterization correlation refers to the accuracy of tests compared to more invasive heart catheterization procedures (the gold standard).
- Fast results: To reduce your time waiting for test results, we have Heart Group cardiologists at all our cardiac imaging locations. Cardiologists are available to read and interpret images right away so that people can receive results quickly.
- Cardiac amyloidosis scans: We are one of the few places in the area with nuclear medicine cardiac amyloidosis scans to detect transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis (ATTR-CM). TTR amyloidosis is a type of cardiac amyloidosis. The liver produces the abnormal proteins (transthyretin proteins) that build up in the heart, which makes it harder for the heart to pump. TTR amyloidosis can also lead to heart failure. Previously, there was no diagnostic test for TTR amyloidosis. Read more about cardiac amyloidosis treatment or our Heart Failure Clinic at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health.
Cardiac Nuclear Medicine Locations
Nuclear stress test and cardiac nuclear medicine are available at two locations in the Lancaster area:
Schedule a Nuclear Heart Scan
To schedule a nuclear stress test or other nuclear imaging, call 717-544-5941.