NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY: Springer Clinic nuclear medicine technician Matt Cook demonstrates nuclear scanning.
GTR Newspapers photo
Pick up a cereal box, a soup can, or even a menu, and you’ll likely find at least one message concerning the health of your heart. Claims like “Cheerios Can Reduce Your Cholesterol” or “Oatmeal Is Heart Healthy” are motivated in part by marketing.
But it’s marketing in response to a catastrophic health problem in the United States.
“Simply put, heart attacks and heart disease are the primary medical killers of Americans,” says Robert Okada MD, a Cardiologist at Springer Clinic.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) takes a staggering toll every year. Long-term disability and premature death attributed to CVD can affect all age groups. The American Heart Association reports that more than 70 million people in the United States suffer from some form of CVD at a cost of more than $300 billion annually.
Doctors, dieticians, and other health professionals continue to fight the long-running battle against heart disease, promoting a population-wide commitment to exercise a balanced diet, and rejection of tobacco products to help thwart CVD.
“We counsel all our patients in behavioral modification,” Dr. Okada explains.
Changing behavior can have tremendous benefits in reducing CVD, but doctors also receive help from improvements in diagnostic tools, which provide an ever-clearer picture of heart and circulatory-system performance.
Cardiologists can tap a widening array of sophisticated tools to diagnose heart-related ailments. Going Nuclear
Nuclear scanning is one noninvasive technique doctors use to study coronary problems and heart disease.
This approach employs a radioisotope into the blood stream. The target area is scanned with a special gamma camera. When used on the heart, the technique usually produces a good, clear image of the heart muscle.
“With this method, we can look at the blood flow to the heart and the heart in motion,” Dr. Okada explains. “And that allows us to search for scars or old damage and the potential for new damage.”
The images from a nuclear scan enable a cardiologist to evaluate the severity of damage to the heart muscle (myocardial infraction). The scans also make it possible to assess limited blood flow to the heart (myocardial ischemia). The nuclear stress scan has great value precisely because it is noninvasive and highly informative, says Dr. Okada, who is certified by the board in nuclear cardiology. The body eliminates the isotopes, and isotopes decay after a short time.
“They are very, very safe to use,” Dr. Okada emphasizes. In addition to diagnosis, nuclear scans are used to monitor patients with known coronary or heart disease.
“It is a good way of following individuals with known problems,” Dr. Okada explains. Many patients benefit from the technology at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, where Dr. Okada serves a Director of Nuclear Cardiology.
Treadmill vs. Scanning vs. Angiogram
Physicians typically use nuclear scans as the second part of a three-tiered diagnostic approach. For patients who can walk on a treadmill, doctors sometimes begin with a simple treadmill exam.
“A treadmill stress test is roughly 70 percent accurate,” Dr. Okada explains. This may be adequate in patients with not atypical symptoms. If more worrisome symptoms are present or if the treadmill test results are abnormal, physicians may move on to a nuclear scan, which is 90 percent accurate in terms of detecting heart problems.
If the unclear scan is abnormal, an angiogram may be ordered, which is a more invasive procedure.
“Angiograms are virtually 100 percent accurate,” says Dr. Okada. “But they carry some risk.”
Some patients, such as those with severe arthritis or lung problems and the elderly, cannot take a treadmill stress test. For them, doctors can order a chemical stress test, which makes the heart think that it is exercising, in conjunction with a nuclear scan.
No matter how they are used, nuclear scans provide physicians and patients with an accurate, comfortable way to detect and monitor health issues.
