Cardiac PET CT Scan Near You

What is a PET CT Cardiac?

A PET CT scan is a medical imaging process that is performed to diagnose and inspect internal abnormalities or diseases. A PET CT cardiac is the combination of PET scan and CT scan of the heart, which is performed to evaluate the heart functions.

Why is a PET CT cardiac performed?

This imaging test is performed for various reasons, including

• Assessing how properly the heart is functioning.
• Assessing the blood flow and oxygen usage of the heart.
• Detecting the presence of coronary artery disease.
• Checking for diseased heart muscles or infections in the heart.
• Assessing the extent of damage of an individual after a heart attack.
• Assessing conditions like cardiomyopathies and heart failure.
• Inspecting how well an individual’s cardiac treatment is working.

How to prepare for a PET CT cardiac?

• You may need to avoid eating and drinking anything except plain water for several hours before the test process starts.
• Your caffeine consumption can be restricted for at least 24 hours before the test.
• You may be advised to avoid all types of strenuous activities for at least 24 hours before appearing for the test.
• You must not consume any tobacco products on the day of test.
• The healthcare providers may instruct you to avoid certain medications before the test. Hence, it’s necessary to inform them about all the medications that you are taking.

What to expect during the test?

• Firstly, you will be asked to remove all types of metallic objects from your body.
• An electrocardiogram may be continued before and during the test for keeping the track of the electrical activities of your heart. Small electrodes will be attached to your chest, arms or legs that will remain connected to an ECG machine, which will help to track your heart’s rhythm throughout the test.
• A baseline image of your heart will be captured before injecting the radioactive tracer.
• The contrast material will be injected in your body. You may need to wait for a certain amount of time after receiving the contrast material. The tracer will be absorbed by the heart muscles.
• Then you will be asked to lie down on a narrow table, which will slide into the scanning machine.
• The scanning machine will start taking pictures of your heart using X-ray radiations and will detect the radiation emitted from the radioactive tracer in your body.
• You must avoid all kinds of body movements while the scanning process in in progress.
• Once the scanning process is over, the table will slide out of the scanning machine. The entire process usually takes 1-3 hours, while the scanning part may take 30-60 minutes.

Result interpretation

Abnormal test reports of a cardiac PET CT scan may indicate the presence of problems like coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy. You must have discussion with the healthcare providers about the test report to gain information about whether any abnormalities have been detected in the test or not.