This procedure provides the most accurate noninvasive measure of the presence and extent of coronary artery disease. In some ways, it’s like an X-ray, but it is much more accurate. The PET scan shows the health of the vessels supplying the blood to your heart, the heart muscle and the tissue surrounding your heart. The doctor can see which arteries are narrowed or blocked and which heart muscles are damaged. In many instances, a PET scan enables cardiologists to determine the best treatment for heart disease without the need for more invasive tests, such as cardiac catheterization.

The procedure is fairly simple. The patient lies on a bed and the doctor takes a PET Image of the heart in a calm state with the PET camera. A small amount of dipyridamole is injected into a vein in the arm followed by an injection of trace. Dipyridamole increases the blood flow through the coronary arteries (the same thing happens when one runs on a treadmill). The doctor can then see which arteries are blocked and where the damaged tissue is located in the heart because blood does not pass into those veins and tissues.

The PET Scan is often used to confirm results, particularly when a false positive result is suspected in ECG stress testing. PET imaging is also considered “the gold standard” for detecting living heart muscle in areas of the heart that are no longer moving and presumed dead. This information may offer therapeutic options to the cardiologist that allow heart function to be restored.

The Continuum Heart Institute is the only facility in the New York metropolitan area to dedicate its PET scan to the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. Our cardiologists have been employing this advanced nuclear procedure for more than seven years, and in that time, have performed over 5,000 successful scans. This experience surpasses every other hospital in New York City and represents one of the largest case volumes in the United States.

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