Using Groundbreaking Technology for Accurate Images

There have been tremendous advances in cardiac imaging in the past ten years. With the use of the latest technology, we can detect heart disease earlier and more accurately than ever before. The team of cardiac imaging experts at the Sands-Constellation Heart Institute provides comprehensive care for patients with cardiovascular disease to tailor treatment to each patient’s specific needs.

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Echocardiography

Echocardiography is ultrasound-based and widely used for heart disease imaging. High-quality echocardiography is extremely important for accurately diagnosing and treating heart disease. Our team is home to experts in intraoperative echocardiography, and we also often use echocardiography to guide catheter-based cardiac procedures.

At Rochester Regional Health’s Cardiovascular Imaging, we provide comprehensive adult echocardiography types, including transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE), exercise treadmill stress, supine bike exercise, pharmacological stress, transesophageal (TEE), and 3D TEE.

Echocardiography is used to evaluate:

• Cardiac masses and tumors
• Congenital heart disease
• Coronary artery disease
• Disease of the aorta
• Effects of cancer treatment on the heart
• Heart failure and other cardiomyopathies
• Pericardial disease
• Valvular heart disease

We offer TTE and stress testing at multiple sites throughout the Finger Lakes region. Specialized services like TEE are performed at Rochester General Hospital and Unity Hospital.

Nuclear Cardiology

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and SPECT/CT 

Rochester Regional Health offers traditional exercise and pharmacologic nuclear stress testing and myocardial perfusion imaging with SPECT and SPECT/CT to detect coronary artery disease and risk stratify for cardiovascular events in those with suspected or established coronary artery disease. We also offer the latest in imaging for cardiac amyloidosis with Technetium Pyrophosphate Scanning.

SPECT services offered include:

• Technetium pyrophosphate studies, which evaluate for cardiac amyloidosis as a cause of heart failure
• 1-day and 2-day stress tests, used to determine if a patient has ischemia as a cause of chest pain
• MUGA scans, which accurately assess and track ejection fraction and are particularly helpful while undergoing cancer treatments
• Myocardial viability imaging, used to determine if a patient who has had a heart attack would benefit from stenting or coronary artery bypass surgery

Cardiac Amyloidosis Imaging

Rochester Regional Health offers the very latest in imaging for cardiac amyloidosis with Technetium Pyrophosphate Scanning.

Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT)

Rochester Regional Health’s Sands-Constellation Heart Institute is proud to now offer the latest in leading-edge technology to our patients with our Cardiac PET/CT program. Cardiac PET/CT is an advanced alternative to traditional nuclear stress testing–using one-fifth of the radiation while providing images with higher resolution than conventional SPECT imaging. 

In addition to our existing clinical diagnostic procedures for cardiac stress, such as cardiac CT, cardiovascular MRI, and cardiac SPECT, our PET/CT also offers imaging capabilities for myocardial perfusion imaging, myocardial viability imaging, and inflammation imaging.

We primarily use PET/CT imaging for:

• Evaluation of coronary artery disease
• Evaluation of small vessel disease (coronary microvascular disease)
• Determining if a patient who has had a heart attack would benefit from stenting or coronary artery bypass surgery
• Possible cardiac sarcoidosis or myocarditis
• Infection as a result of implanted cardiac devices (defibrillators or pacemakers)

Under the leadership of Mallory Balmer-Swain, MD, and Gaurav Sharma, MD, the Cardiac PET/CT program has brought together a team of dedicated experts, including PET-trained technologists, nurses, and providers.