The health of the heart and the blood vessels attached to it are vital to the body's overall health. When a doctor examines a patient who is having symptoms that may indicate a problem with the heart, such as shortness of breath and chest pain, she may prescribe a heart scan. Heart scans produce highly detailed images of the heart and enable the doctor to diagnose any problems with the heart or its attached blood vessels. There are three main types of diagnostic scans that are used to examine the health of the heart.
Cardiac MRI
The Mayo Clinic describes how magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, uses a magnetic field and radio waves to perform a heart scan. In this type of scan, often called a cardiac MRI, the patient lies inside of a tube-shaped magnet that causes all of the water molecules in the body to align themselves in a particular way. Radio waves are then administered to the body, which cause the water molecules to emit signals that a computer is able to interpret. The result of this non-invasive process is a highly detailed image of the heart muscle. The Mayo Clinic adds that a cardiac MRI can diagnose many different aspects of the structure of the heart: the thickness of the walls of the heart; any blockages present in the attached blood vessels; any damage caused by a heart attack or heart disease; and any problems with the aorta, such as an aortic aneurysm, which is a bulging out of a blood vessel wall.
Cardiac CT
Cardiac CT, or computed tomography, is a procedure that uses x-rays to create the image of the heart and its attached blood vessels. The Cleveland Clinic describes how specialized detectors perceive the way the x-rays bounce off of the heart and its blood vessels, and a 2-D image is created. A computer compiles a series of the 2-D images to create a highly detailed 3-D image. Sometimes a contrast dye is injected into the patient before the scan is performed. Contrast dye is highly visible on images taken by x-ray and highlights the flow of blood through the heart. If there are any blockages, leakages, or bulging of the blood vessel walls, the contrast dye will highlight these defects.
Nuclear Heart Scan
A nuclear heart scan uses a safe radioactive substance to visualize the heart and its attached blood vessels. The National Heart Lung and Blood Institute reports that this radioactive substance, called a tracer, is injected intravenously before the scan is performed. The tracer travels through the blood vessels and heart and gives off energy as it does so. Specialized cameras focused on the body can detect the energy emitted, creating a picture of the heart. Nuclear heart scans are used to determine the health of the heart and the blood vessels. It can also be used to test how well the heart pumps blood to the rest of the body, a procedure called ventricular function scanning.
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