General and Consultative Heart Care
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Imaging

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Duke offers virtually every type of state-of-the-art cardiac imaging technology, including echocardiography, ultrasound, molecular nuclear medicine imaging, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission topography (PET), and computed tomography (CT scans).

Echocardiogram

An echocardiogram provides detailed pictures of the moving heart and involves no radiation exposure.

A leader in the field of echocardiography for more than three decades, Duke provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art diagnostic service -- and performs one of the nation's highest echo volumes. In 2008, Duke performed nearly 29,000 adult echocardiograms to support cardiac surgical decision-making.

Procedures available include:

  • Echocardiography
  • Stress echocardiography
  • Pharmacologic stress echocardiography
  • Transesophageal echocardiography
  • Contrast echocardiography
  • Intracardiac, intraoperative, and intravascular ultrasound

Duke Heart Center also houses one of the world’s only fully 3-D echocardiography labs.

Cardiac MRI

Cardiac MRI shows details of heart structure, function, and blood flow with unrivalled crispness.

Especially when a patient has an enlarged, poorly contracting heart, MRI can provide more specific, higher-level information such as how big the heart is and how thick the walls are, to help physicians make the best treatment decisions.

With some 3,200 procedures performed annually, the Duke Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Center boasts one of the world’s highest annual volumes -- and is the country’s first and largest dedicated program of its kind.

CT Imaging

During the painless, non-invasive cardiac CT scan, an x-ray beam creates 3D images of the coronary arteries and cardiac chambers.

Duke physicians and scientists have led the development and use of multi-slice cardiac CT technology, which combines ultra-fast CT imaging with angiography to yield exceptionally high-resolution images used to diagnose and evaluate coronary and vascular disease and complex congenital conditions.

There are limitations to CT scanning. For example, patients with arrhythmias remain ineligible for CT scans. Your doctors will help determine if this diagnostic procedure is right for you.

Molecular Nuclear Imaging

Duke Heart Center offers the most advanced cardiac nuclear imaging technologies available, enabling clinicians to view high-resolution images of the heart’s chemical functions at a molecular level.

We offer modalities to both inpatients and outpatients that include:

  • Myocardial single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). SPECT yields 3-D images of the heart’s function and ability to pump blood, enabling clinicians to plan therapies with minimal organ-injury risk and to precisely monitor post-therapy function. SPECT is the oldest and most scientifically validated imaging technique for evaluating the impact of coronary artery and ischemic heart disease.
  • Gated-pool blood scanning. This scanning is used to evaluate coronary heart disease, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and overall heart function -- and to assess cardiac function before and during drug therapies that can damage the heart.

MIBG Imaging

Duke Heart Center is using new imaging techniques to identify and evaluate patients at risk for sudden cardiac death.

One of these techniques labels a compound called metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) with radioactive iodine. The labeled compound accumulates in cells of healthy hearts, but not in unhealthy ones, making MIBG imaging a powerful predictor of heart-related mortality, sudden cardiac death, cardiac electrical imbalance, and recurrent heart failure in previously diagnosed patients.

Long used in the U.S. to diagnose and identify cancerous tumors, MIBG imaging is only recently being used in cardiac studies, and Duke Heart Center is leading the way in this innovative and promising application.

Physicians

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About This Page

Published: Feb. 21, 2007
Updated: Nov. 4, 2009
URL: http://www.dukehealth.org/Services/GeneralConsultativeHeartCare/Tests/Imaging