Diagnostics

Making an accurate diagnosis enables us to match patients with the best treatment. To accomplish this, Evergreen offers an extensive array of diagnostic and treatment procedures.

Patient Stories

"They are the difference in my being here today."

For nearly half her life, 42-year-old Nancy Stewart had been told she suffered from a heart murmur - but that didn't explain her excruciating headaches, nausea and exhaustion.

Patient: Nancy Stewart

CT Angiography

Angiography studies the arterial blood vessels of the body. A contrast dye is injected through a tiny catheter (a thin flexible tube). A rapid succession of X-rays is taken to view how well blood is moving through the arteries.

Cardiac Catheterization

This procedure examines the blood flow to the heart muscle and evaluates how well the heart is pumping. It involves threading a thin, flexible tube into the heart and coronary arteries through an artery or vein the arm or leg.

Catheters with a balloon on the tip are used in the procedure called coronary angioplasty (also known as percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI). If a blocked artery is found, the balloon is used to push plaque up against the artery wall to restore blood flow. Often times, a wire mesh stent is placed in the artery to help keep the artery open.

Echocardiography

An echocardiogram, often called an "echo," is a real-time ultrasound evaluation of the heart. During this test, high-frequency ultrasound waves are sent into the body through a transducer. Echoes received are used to produce an image of the heart's chambers and valves. This allows the sonographer to evaluate chamber size, muscle function and valve structure and function. In conjunction with two-dimensional pictures, Doppler ultrasound and color Doppler are used to evaluate the blood flow through the heart and across the valves.

There are different types of echocardiograms that can be performed, depending on need:

Transthoracic Echo

The transducer is applied to the front of the chest and the ultrasound images are taken through the chest wall. This provides an accurate non-invasive assessment of the overall size, function and structure of the heart.

Transesophageal Echo

A tiny transducer at the tip of a small flexible tube will be passed down the esophagus and threaded down the throat to get a view of the heart from the back. This technique produces clearer results due to very little distortion of the image.

Stress Echo

A stress echocardiogram (or "stress echo") is a non-invasive test that combines ultrasound pictures of the heart with a stress test. The stress test portion can be either an exercise treadmill test or pharmacological stress test. It uses ultrasound images to evaluate the heart's function at rest and with exercise. This exam greatly aids in the detection of potential narrowing of coronary arteries .

Electrocardiogram

An electrocardiograph (ECG or EKG) detects the electrical impulses that cause the heart to contract. Changes in the ECG signal can indicate electrical disturbances of the heart conducting system, as well as structural abnormalities.

For the ECG to chart the heart's electrical activity, electrodes are placed on the chest, wrists and ankles and are connected to a monitor that displays the heart's electrical impulses.

Heart CT Scan

A CT scan generates pictures of the heart and blood vessels. Evergreen's 64-slice CT scanner allows us to freeze the motion of the heart and see it in greater detail than ever before.

Heart PET Scan

While MRI and CT scans reveal the structure of the heart, a PET scan can show whether areas of your heart muscle are receiving enough blood flow.

Nuclear Cardiology

Nuclear cardiology evaluates the function of the heart using radioisotopes that are injected into the bloodstream, then tracked by a camera that photographs the progress of the isotopes through the body. Nuclear cardiology can also examine how well blood is flowing to the heart muscle and measure the pumping function of the heart.