Cardiology diagnostics

For accurate assessment of cardiac function.

Nuclear Medicine noninvasively studies the function of the heart by assessing the perfusion of the heart muscle (the myocardium), that is, the amount of blood the muscle receives through the coronary circulation, and the cardiac concentrating capacity, that is, the force with which blood is pushed into the body circulation from the left ventricle.

These two aspects are assessed simultaneously at rest and during provocative testing (which simulates psychophysical stress conditions). These investigations make it possible to assess the state of efficiency of the coronary circulation and the effectiveness of the therapies performed, as well as to estimate any damage sustained by the heart muscle and its residual ability to contract.

Examinations and diagnosis

Basal and stress myocardial tomoscintigraphy

Principal indications.
Evaluation of coronary blood flow disturbances and related myocardial perfusion.


Examination procedure.
The examination is divided into 2 separate sessions, which can be performed on the same day or on separate days. In one session, resting scintigraphy is performed; in the other, scintigraphy after stress (ergometric exercise or, alternatively, pharmacological testing) is performed. Tracer administration is done intravenously. The patient must be fasting and discontinue medication as prescribed by the physician in the days before the session with ergometric stress or drug test. Do not take tea, coffee, or chocolate. Performance of the test about 1 hour after the injection.


Examination duration.
20-30 minutes for each of the two sessions

Whole body scintigraphy/SPECT-CT of chromaffin tissue

Principal indications.
Evaluation of cardiac adrenergic innervation.

Examination procedure.
Fasting patient, discontinuation of interfering medication as prescribed. Premedication with Lugol's solution. Intravenous injection of the tracer. Performance of examination after 20 min and late 2h post injection.

Duration of the examination.
2 hours and 30 minutes. Additional session the next day: 45 minutes.

The English version of this page was created with the aid of automatic translation tools and may contain errors and omissions.
The original version is the page in Italian.