Our ability to view the heart at work without surgery has dramatically improved care and treatment for heart and vascular disease. Just as an X-ray shows a broken bone inside the body, our advanced technology reveals blocked vessels, heart disease, bulging or weak arteries and other heart and vascular conditions. These noninvasive exams allow us to uncover disease and begin treatment earlier, reducing complications so patients get healthier, sooner.
The types of tests include traditional stress tests during which patients walk briskly on a treadmill. We also offer reclining bicycle (supine) stress tests. Medication-induced stress tests may be used when patients are unable to walk. For more in-depth studies, patients benefit from gated myocardial perfusion imaging and gated blood pool imaging. These evaluations monitors blood flow within the heart.
Other tests known as echocardiography are complete evaluations showing the size of the heart chambers, muscle thickness and movement, as well as showing how the valves and ventricles are functioning.
Computed tomography angiography (CT angiography) uses X-rays to identify disease such as:
- atherosclerosis
- aneurysms
- disease in vessels leading to the kidneys
- to plan for a surgical operation such as coronary bypass
- to determine if clots are present or possible in the lungs
The Cardiovascular Imaging Center at the East Carolina Heart Institute
115 Heart Drive
Greenville NC 27834
252 744 4400
866 401 ECHI (3244)
For more information on our cardiovascular imaging services, visit the East Carolina Heart Institute’s Diagnostic Imaging pages.
