Nuclear Cardiology Department

St. Luke’s Heart Institute is at the forefront of introducing new and advanced diagnostic tests and tools to further understand the complexity of heart disease.

Cardiac diagnostic imaging tests include state-of-the-art Thallium Stress Testing with Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT), which provide doctors with a nuclear scan of the blood during rest or activity to show areas of the heart that are not getting enough blood. In the scan, Gamma cameras take a series of pictures of the heart. Radioactive thallium is injected into the bloodstream, serving as a tracer. The tracer attaches to the muscle cells of the heart so the imaging camera can take pictures of the heart muscles.