CT or MRI
Cardiac computerized tomography scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These tests can be used to diagnose heart problems, including causes of heart failure. In a cardiac CT scan, you lie on a table inside a doughnut-shaped machine. An X-ray tube inside the machine rotates around your body and collects images of your heart and chest. In a cardiac MRI, you lie on a table inside a long tube-like machine that produces a magnetic field. The magnetic field aligns atomic particles in some of your cells. When radio waves are broadcast toward these aligned particles, they produce signals that vary according to the type of tissue they are. The signals create images of your heart.
Coronary Catheterization (angiogram).
In this test, a thin, flexible tube (catheter) is inserted into a blood vessel at your groin or in your arm and guided through the aorta into your coronary arteries. A dye injected through the catheter makes the arteries supplying your heart visible on an X-ray. This test helps doctors identify narrowed arteries to your heart (coronary artery disease) that can be a cause of heart failure. The test may include a ventriculogram — a procedure to determine the strength of the heart's main pumping chamber (left ventricle) and the health of the heart valves.
Myocardial biopsy. In this test, your doctor inserts a small flexible biopsy cord into a vein in your neck or groin, and small pieces of the heart muscle are taken. This test is performed to diagnose certain types of heart muscle diseases that cause heart failure.
You will become familiar with this medical teminology because you will hear about them over and over again.
8