Test detects heart muscle damage

If you’re a high-risk cardiac patient,
is it safe to have surgery, and will it help?

McLaren Macomb offers a special PET/CT scan that can give doctors the answers they need before recommending certain cardiac procedures.

In fact, McLaren Macomb is the only hospital in Macomb County to offer the procedure, called myocardial viability testing. This state-of-the-art procedure determines heart muscle health.

The test, which is done by the hospital’s radiology and nuclear medicine department, combines two sophisticated imaging techniques, positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT), to help doctors look for damaged heart muscle. They can also identify blood flow and viable muscle within certain areas of the heart.

Cardiac PET/CT scans are painless and noninvasive. They are performed by a doctor and patients do not have to be admitted to the hospital.

For patients with chronic heart disease and severe heart failure, it can help to determine the likelihood of success for procedures that are designed to improve blood flow to the heart. Doctors can receive tests results within 72 hours to help them decide whether high-risk patients will benefit from the procedures.

The highly sensitive scans help cardiologists and surgeons evaluate high-risk cardiac patients with a great degree of accuracy, prior to potentially serious cardiac procedures and surgeries.

Scan results are interpreted by a board-certified specialist with extensive experience in cardiac PET imaging.

How does it work?

Patients having the myocardial viability test lie on an exam table, while a technologist injects a safe, radioactive substance called a tracer into a vein. The tracer travels through the body to the heart and releases energy. The PET/CT scanner detects this energy and, with the help of a computer, produces extremely detailed pictures of the heart and how it's working.

For more information on this procedure, call the Mat Gaberty Heart Center staff at (586) 493-8048. Or ask your doctor about referring you for this procedure at McLaren Macomb.

For information on other cardiac services and advantages at McLaren Macomb, please visit www.mclaren.org/macombheart