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UAB Nuclear Cardiology provides the highest quality patient care through non-invasive cardiac imaging. Much like a traditional stress test, nuclear cardiology involves examination of the heart at stress (exercise or drugs) and/or at rest. Patients are injected with a small amount of a radioactive tracer that is imaged with specialized cameras to evaluate both blood flow to heart muscle and pumping function. UAB Nuclear Cardiologists have literally written the textbook in this field that is used all over the globe as a reference and guide. |
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| Related Information |
Nuclear Cardiology Fellowship
Nuclear Cardiology Patient Care Rotation
Nuclear Cardiology Research Program |
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Locations
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UAB Hospital Jefferson Towers
2nd Floor
625 19th Street South
Birmingham, Alabama 35233
The Kirklin Clinic
4th Floor
2000 6th Avenue South
Birmingham, Alabama 35205 |
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Director
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Ami Iskandrian, MD, MACC |
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Faculty
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Jaekyeong Heo, MD
Ami Iskandrian, MD, MACC |
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Patient Population
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Patients with a variety of known or suspected cardiac ailments, including:
- Chest pain
- Acute myocardial infarction (AMI)
- Coronary artery disease
- Diabetes
- Heart failure
- Heart diseases, including heart function
- Hypertension
- Chronic kidney disease
- Before major surgery including transplantation of organs
- Rhythm problems
- Congenital heart disease
- Valvular disease
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Clinical Services
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UAB Nuclear Cardiology provides a variety of stress tests including:
- Graded treadmill exercise test - non imaging
- Metabolic stress/rest tests to evaluate heart function
- Graded exercise tests with gated tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging
- Multiple gated acquisition scan (MUGA) to access heart function
- Rest gated tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging
- Bedside planar myocardial perfusion imaging
- Viability assessment to determine whether heart muscle is dead or hibernating
- Pharmacologic stress gated tomographic myocardial perfusion imaging
- Regadenoson (Lexiscan)
- Adenosine (Adenoscan)
- Dobutamine
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Training
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Supervising stress tests performed by specially trained nursing staff at the inpatient and/or outpatient laboratory, including:
- selecting the appropriate form of stress
- providing patient risk assessment
- monitoring ECG and patient status during stress
- interpreting the ECG tracing
Reviewing the patient’s clinical chart to determine the appropriate stress and imaging protocol which includes considerations regarding:
- the optimal form of stress
- specific cardiac procedure indications
- viability versus ischemia
- infarction determination
- body habitus
Preparing cases for interpretation by attending physicians, including:
- the completion of all relevant forms, worksheets, proper image formatting on display computers
- familiarity with pertinent clinical factors
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Research
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Imaging-specific and disease-specific problems, including:
- Cardiac disorders (such as coronary heart disease and LV dyssynchrony)
- Diabetes mellitus
- Chronic kidney disease
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