When it comes to your heart, early diagnosis and treatment matter. Many heart conditions develop gradually, often without obvious symptoms. By the time you start having symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath, or fatigue, a heart issue may have progressed to a more serious condition.
Fortunately, today’s advanced cardiac imaging technologies allow cardiologists to look more closely at the heart and blood vessels, helping find potential problems earlier and potentially delay or prevent diseases and complications.
At Cardiology Specialists of Orange County, with offices in Santa Ana and Newport Beach, California, advanced imaging is an important part of our cardiologists’ comprehensive approach to evaluating your heart health.
But what does cardiac imaging involve and when might you need it?
Cardiac imaging is a collection of diagnostic tests that create detailed pictures of your heart and cardiovascular system. While physical exams and blood tests provide valuable information, imaging lets us take a closer look at the structure and function of your heart, as well as how blood flows through it.
We use various cardiac imaging tests to gather different types of information that help us make treatment recommendations. We also use advanced imaging when performing interventional cardiology procedures like cardiac catheterization.
At Cardiology Specialists of Orange County, we offer a wide range of diagnostic tests to help us find and treat heart issues in a way that gets the best outcomes. This includes cardiac imaging tests such as:
An echocardiogram is one of the most common and familiar imaging tests. It uses ultrasound waves to create images of your heart, showing how well it pumps. It also helps us see how blood moves through each chamber of your heart and to search for signs of heart valve diseases like atrial fibrillation, or AFib.
A cardiac CT scan is an X-ray that provides detailed images of your heart and arteries. It looks for narrowing and blockages in the arteries that supply blood to your heart to diagnose coronary artery disease (CAD).
We also use MRIs to provide more detailed images of the heart. A cardiac MRI lets us look closely at your heart muscle and surrounding structures, helping us better assess heart tissue and valve structure. With an MRI, we can see if you have damaged tissue and how deeply it goes.
A nuclear stress test shows us how blood flows through your heart when beating at its normal pace and when beating faster. We offer exercise and medication stress testing to increase heart rate.
Stress tests help us see heart issues that may not appear when the heart is beating normally. The added imaging of the nuclear stress test lets us see exactly where you have narrowing or blockages in the arteries.
One of the biggest advantages of advanced cardiac imaging is that it lets us see changes to your heart before you have obvious symptoms.
For example, we use imaging to find plaque buildup in the arteries, problems with heart valves, and abnormalities in the heart’s structure. Finding these issues early may ensure you get treatment that prevents or delays worsening of cardiac diseases and disorders.
Imaging also helps provide a clearer picture of what’s going on with your heart that we can’t see with other tests, helping us offer more effective treatment recommendations.
While advanced cardiac imaging provides answers to our medical questions, not everyone needs it. We recommend testing based on your health history, symptoms, risk factors, and other test results.
If you have heart disease, significant risk factors, or abnormal testing, then advanced cardiac imaging may provide the additional information we need to better guide care.
Your heart can change long before you notice a problem. Advanced cardiac imaging is another tool that helps us see those changes, and so we can better understand your cardiovascular health.
If you have symptoms or risk factors that concern you, we can help determine if advanced cardiac imaging is right for you. Call us today at the office most convenient to you to make an appointment for your evaluation.
