Non-Invasive Cardiology

This is an ultrasound test to evaluate blood flow in your carotid arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the brain. The test can indicate narrowing or blockages caused by plaque buildup.

EECP therapy can improve blood flow and reduce angina symptoms for patients with chronic, stable angina (chest pain). The test stimulates blood flow through the affected vessels using pumps attached to the lower extremities.

Like the carotid Doppler test, an echocardiogram uses high-frequency ultrasound technology to provide a real-time, moving image of your heart. This allows your doctor to assess its blood flow, structure, and function. This test is performed in our Trinity and Countryside offices.

Like the Holter monitor, an event monitor is a portable, wearable electrocardiogram. It is typically used when a doctor suspects an abnormal heart rhythm that occurs at unpredictable intervals. The monitor is worn for two to four weeks, 24 hours a day, while you perform normal activities. By activating the monitor when you sense a change in your heartbeat, you can record your heart’s electrical activity. This produces a chart that will help your doctor determine the cause of these changes.

Also known as a treadmill test, this shows how your heart performs during exercise or other activities that makes it work harder. The test can help determine if the arteries that supply the heart are receiving sufficient blood flow. No nuclear or contrast material is used.

Like event monitoring, this is a wearable, portable electrocardiogram that monitors the electrical activity of a person’s heart 24 -hours a day for a short period—usually one or two days. A Holter monitor is most often used when a doctor suspects an abnormal heart rhythm.

Usually performed in combination with an exercise stress test, this procedure shows how your heart performs during exercise or other activities that make it work harder. Also known as a thallium stress test, a myocardial perfusion scan, or a radionuclide test, it can help determine if the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle are receiving sufficient blood flow.

A nuclear stress test uses a small amount thallium, a radioactive substance, to depict blood flow to the heart while you are exercising. A special nuclear imaging device takes pictures of the thallium as it moves through your heart. If any part isn’t receiving a normal blood supply, less thallium will be visible in those cells.

A stress echo combines an exercise or or pharmacologic stress test with a transthoracic (standard) echocardiogram. This allows the doctor to compare images of the heart at rest with images of the heart during and/or after stress to evaluate how the heart’s response.

This  relatively new echocardiographic technique measures the velocity of myocardial (heart muscle) motion. Conventional Doppler techniques, such as those used in the carotid Doppler study, assess the velocity of blood flow by measuring signals from small, fast-moving blood cells. TDI measures the frequency shift in of ultrasound signals reflected from myocardial tissue as it moves.