Cardiovascular Imaging + Noninvasive Testing

You can trust that our doctors and care team will do everything they can to quickly, efficiently and accurately diagnose heart conditions. We'll decide on the right tests for you based on your symptoms, medical history and family health history.

Cardiac MRI

A cardiac MRI uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create images of your heart and the inside of your blood vessels. These images allow us to look for any potential conditions that can harm your heart health.

Because a cardiac MRI uses a strong magnet to create images, your care team will explain how to prepare for your MRI with steps like removing all metal objects beforehand. It’s important to note that people with some types of pacemakers or implanted defibrillators cannot undergo an MRI because the magnet can harm the devices. People with titanium implants (such as hip or knee replacements and most prosthetic heart valves and heart stents) are typically approved for an MRI.

For most cardiac MRI tests, your technician will inject you with a special type of dye called a contrast agent that helps light up specific tissues on the scan to detect scarring or other abnormalities of your heart muscle. 

CT scan

A CT scan uses specialized X-rays to diagnose conditions throughout your body, and they’re effective at visualizing your heart, too. A CT scan can help us evaluate blood vessels and coronary arteries for any signs of blockages or narrowing. Your doctor may give you a special dye called a contrast agent that helps provide us with detailed information about the blood vessels in your heart. Please note there is some radiation exposure with CT scans, but the benefits of accurate diagnosis and detailed imaging outweigh the minimal risk.

Echocardiogram (“echo”)

An echocardiogram is an ultrasound of your heart. We use echocardiograms to answer important questions, like:

• Are your heart valves leaking or restricted?
• Is your heart muscle thick?
• Is your heart pumping in a healthy way?

This test is performed by gliding a small hand-held wand (known as a transducer) across your skin. The transducer emits high-frequency sound waves that travel until they hit a boundary, like your heart muscle and valves, and create an echo. When the echoes return to the transducer, they produce images on the ultrasound monitor in real time.

Electrocardiogram (EKG)

An electrocardiogram (EKG) is a test that checks your heart’s electrical activity. It’s used to diagnose conditions like heart failure, cardiac sarcoidosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, to name a few.

An EKG records your heart's electrical signals and translates your heartbeat and rhythm into a graph for your care team to examine.

Stress echocardiogram

A stress echocardiogram is a two-part test that shows how your heart functions under stress. We will use both an electrocardiogram (EKG) and an echocardiogram (echo) to examine your heart. To see how your heart rate responds to exercise and rest, we will also conduct an exercise stress echocardiogram.

Exercise stress echocardiogram

Exercise stress echocardiograms are special tests that allow your doctor to decipher whether you develop a heart obstruction when your heart rate increases during daily physical activities, like walking up stairs. Also known as the more traditional approach, the exercise stress echocardiogram involves running on a treadmill while attached to an EKG. When running on a treadmill isn't a safe option, we can use medications to artificially stress the heart, also known as a chemical stress test.

Your doctor may order an exercise stress echocardiogram if a regular echocardiogram shows a thickened heart muscle but no blocked blood flow when you’re at rest.