A client’s physician orders nuclear cardiography and makes an appointment for a thallium scan. The purpose of injecting radioisotope into the bloodstream is to detect:
A. Normal vs. abnormal tissue
B. Damage in areas of the heart
C. Ventricular function
D. Myocardial scarring and perfusion
Correct Answer: D. Myocardial scarring and perfusion
This scan detects myocardial damage and perfusion, an acute or chronic MI. These scans are often done to determine the size and location of injured muscle after a heart attack and will help the doctor find out more about the heart’s cells and its blood supply. A thallium (or cardiolite) scan uses a radioactive tracer to see how much blood is reaching different parts of the heart.
Option A: An echocardiogram is a noninvasive (the skin is not pierced) procedure used to assess the heart’s function and structures. During the procedure, a transducer (like a microphone) sends out sound waves at a frequency too high to be heard. When the transducer is placed on the chest at certain locations and angles, the sound waves move through the skin and other body tissues to the heart tissues, where the waves bounce or “echo” off of the heart structures. These sound waves are sent to a computer that can create moving images of the heart walls and valves.
Option B: Electrocardiogram (ECG) records the electrical activity of the heart, shows abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias), and can sometimes detect heart muscle damage. The evolution of EKG from a string galvanometer to the modern-day advanced computerized machine has led to its use as a diagnostic and screening tool, making it the gold standard for diagnosing various cardiac diseases.
Option C: Specific ventricular function is tested by a gated cardiac blood pool scan. A cardiac blood pool test sometimes referred to as a wall motion study, multi-gated acquisition, or MUGA scan is a nuclear medicine test used to assess the heart’s pumping function. The MUGA is most often used to measure the function of the left ventricle (LV), which is the major pumping chamber of the heart.
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