Cardiology tests and imaging

Cardiologists at Ascension St. Vincent’s use advanced tests and imaging to diagnose and treat heart conditions.

Cardiac tests and imaging for personalized treatment

Imaging tests, cholesterol tests, heart enzyme blood tests, EKG and blood pressure monitoring help your doctor diagnose heart disease — irregular heartbeat, leaky heart valve, clogged coronary artery and more.

Whether you're experiencing symptoms, managing a heart condition or undergoing a preventive heart screening, our cardiologists work with your primary care doctor to support early detection and personalized treatment planning.

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Heart tests and imaging close to home

Our cardiology team uses advanced diagnostic tools to identify heart conditions and understand symptoms, helping to create a treatment plan that's right for you.

Your care team provides blood pressure monitoring to help you better understand your heart health and reduce the risk of severe conditions like heart attack, stroke and kidney disease. Whether you're being screened for high blood pressure (hypertension) or managing an existing condition, regular monitoring can keep you healthy. Your heart specialist may recommend doctor visit checks, home blood pressure monitoring or 24-hour blood pressure monitoring.

A blood test is a lab analysis of things that may be found in your blood. You may have blood tests to keep track of how well you are managing a condition, such as diabetes or high cholesterol. You may also have them for routine checkups or when you are ill.

This is also known as a cardiac or heart cath. For this test, your doctor guides a small catheter (hollow tube) through the large artery in your upper leg, or sometimes your wrist or arm, into your heart. This procedure lets your doctor take a close look at the heart to identify concerns and to perform other tests or procedures.

This imaging procedure uses an X-ray machine and a computer to create 3-D pictures of the heart. Sometimes a dye is injected into a vein so that your heart arteries can also be seen. Sometimes medicine is given to lower your heart rate so it captures a better image. It can also be used to find out how much calcium is in your heart arteries. Calcium is a marker for coronary artery disease.

This procedure uses a combination of large magnets, radio waves, and a computer to make detailed images of organs and structures in your body. Your doctor may order an MRI of the heart to look at the heart valves and major vessels. It can also detect coronary artery disease and how much damage it has caused. It can also assess heart problems that have been present since birth. It can find tumors and other conditions. Your doctor may order this test before other procedures such as angioplasty or stenting of the coronary arteries and heart or vascular surgery.

This test is done during a cardiac catheterization. For this test, your doctor guides a small catheter (hollow tube) through the large artery in your upper leg, or sometimes your wrist or arm, into your heart. Dye is given through the catheter, and moving X-ray pictures are taken as the dye travels through your heart arteries and heart chambers. This comprehensive test shows narrowing in the arteries, heart chamber size, how well your heart pumps, and how well the valves open and close. It also measures the pressures within the heart chambers, arteries, and veins.

This test is a CT scan that measures the amount of calcium in the walls of your coronary arteries. Buildup of calcium, or calcifications, are signs of atherosclerosis or coronary heart disease.

Your doctor may recommend this test if you have a condition that involves the blood vessels. CT angiography is a type of medical test that combines a CT scan with an injection of a special dye. This is to make pictures of blood vessels and tissues in a part of your body. The dye is injected through an IV (intravenous) line started in your arm or hand. A CT scan is a type of X-ray that uses a computer to make images of your body. The dye injected to do CT angiography is called a contrast material. This is because it highlights the blood vessels and tissues being studied.

It's used to check the heart's function and structures. During the procedure, a transducer (like a microphone) sends out sound waves at a frequency too high to be heard. When the transducer is placed on the chest at certain locations and angles, the sound waves move through the skin and other body tissues to the heart tissues. The waves bounce or "echo" off the heart structures. These sound waves are sent to a computer that can create moving images on the screen of the heart walls and valves.

This test records the electrical activity of the heart, shows abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias), and can sometimes detect heart muscle damage.

For this test, insulated electric catheters are placed through the large vein in the upper leg and threaded into the heart. It's used to test the heart's electrical system. It helps your doctor look at what might be causing abnormal heart rhythms.

For this test, you wear a small, portable, battery-powered machine used to record ECG over several weeks. Each time you have symptoms, you press a button on the recorder to record the ECG sample. As soon as possible, you will transmit this sample to your doctor for evaluation.

For this test, you wear a small, portable, battery-powered ECG machine. Small patches (wired electrodes) are attached to the skin over your heart. The monitor records heartbeats over a period of 24 to 48 hours during normal activities. At the end of the time period, you will return the monitor to your doctor so it can be read and evaluated. Some Holter monitors can be worn for up to 2 weeks. These monitors are patches and don't require wires.

This is a nuclear scan that helps your doctor understand the flow of blood through the coronary arteries to the heart muscle.

This is also called a treadmill or exercise ECG. This test is done to monitor the heart while you walk on a treadmill or pedal a stationary bike. Your doctor also monitors your breathing and blood pressure. A stress test may be used to detect coronary artery disease, or to determine safe levels of exercise after a heart attack or heart surgery. This test can also be done using special medicines that stress the heart in a similar manner as exercise does. Sometimes a stress test will collect ECG information along with heart ultrasound pictures. This is called an exercise or stress echocardiogram (echo). It's more sensitive and specific than ECG stress testing alone.

This test is similar to a transthoracic echocardiogram. But it's done with medicine to help you relax (sedation). It's considered invasive because a probe is put into your body. In this test, you will swallow a small probe about the size of your thumb. The probe passes down the esophagus, which lies directly behind the heart. It allows a much closer look at the heart's structure and function than a standard echocardiogram done on the skin of the chest. It can better look at heart valve structure and function. Your doctor can better see any blood clots that may be in the heart.

A heart scan could save your life

A heart scan is a quick, painless way to detect early signs of heart disease before symptoms appear. If you have risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or a family history, this simple test could prevent a heart attack. Take control of your heart health today.

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