A New Way to See Your Heart

Cardiac MRI gives doctors a clearer picture

More accurate diagnosis—A cardiac MRI image of the four heart chambers in motion (right) allows doctors to see the heart's pumping ability. An image enhanced with contrast dye (left) identifies muscle damaged by a heart attack, a clue to whether bypass surgery will help the patient.

If your physician suspects you have heart disease—or if you’ve survived a heart attack and your doctor wants to assess the damage—a new imaging technique may help.

It’s called cardiac MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). “We have performed MRI of different parts of the body for many years,” says John Cox, M.D., one of the radiologists interpreting these studies at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “Recent advances in equipment allow us to better visualize the heart’s anatomy and even watch it in motion.”

“Still and moving images of the heart can be obtained in any plane,” says Andrew Sumner, M.D., cardiologist at the hospital. “We can quantify blood flow, assess the amount of scarring, and determine the size and function of both the heart’s pumping chambers.”

Here’s how it works. First, a radiology technician positions four wires (“leads”) onto your chest to help capture the images. You may be asked to hold your breath for up to 10 seconds for certain images. From prep through finish, the test takes about 90 minutes. A radiologist and cardiologist simultaneously review the images, and you get the results within 48 hours.

Cardiac MRI can help diagnose many conditions, including diseases of the pericardium (the sack surrounding the heart) and heart muscle. “If you’ve already had a heart attack, cardiac MRI allows us to identify living and dead heart muscle,” says Sumner’s colleague, heart surgeon James Wu, M.D. “This helps us determine which surgery will be most effective.”

Want to Know More about other heart tests? Call 610-402-CARE.

Published from Healthy You Magazine, July-August 2007

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