Our diagnostic capabilities
Prompt and timely diagnosis is perhaps just as important as the treatment that follows. With this in mind, MGM Healthcare has made some of the best diagnostic technologies available to its patients. The experts of cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery and cardiac anaesthesia are all aided with top-end diagnostic equipment like PHILIPS INGENUITY CT (128 slice CT scanner), PHILIPS VOLCANO – CORE MOBILE (Intravascular Ultrasound System (IVUS) System), PHILIPS AZURION 7 C12 (Monoplane Cath lab), GETINGE ROTAFLOW (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – ECMO machine) and PHILIPS INGENIA ELITION 3.0T S (3 Tesla MRI machine).
Our heart specialists will perform a physical exam and ask about your personal and family medical history. Depending on what condition your doctor thinks you might have, you will need to undergo specific tests to diagnose your heart disease. Broadly, there are invasive and non-invasive diagnostic tests that will help assess your heart condition.
Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG)
An ECG records the electrical activity of the heart including the timing and duration of each electrical phase in your heartbeat. This test is usually done to determine if a heart attack has occurred. It also helps to monitor changes in heart rhythm and helps the doctor predict if a heart attack is developing
Ambulatory Electrocardiography and Holter Monitoring
It records the electrical activity of the heart during daily activities and enables doctors to determine the condition of the heart.
Chest X-Ray
Takes a picture of the heart, lungs and bones of the chest and helps determine whether the heart is enlarged, if fluid is accumulating in the lungs due to a heart attack.
Echocardiogram
It produces images of your hearth’s size, structure and motion by using high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound). It’s a handheld device that is placed on your chest while recording. It helps diagnose abnormal rhythms (arrhythmias) in the heart and provides useful information about your heart’s health.
Cardiac Computed Tomography
It’s a computer-aided technique that creates 3D images of your heart that can show blockages caused by calcium deposits you may have in your coronary arteries. It helps the doctor evaluate aortic disease, cardiac masses and pericardial disease.
Exercise Stress Test or Treadmill Test
While you walk on the treadmill, a monitor with electrodes is attached to the skin on the chest area to record your heart function. It helps monitor your heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, ECG, etc. It helps diagnose coronary artery disease, angina (chest pain) and helps predict heart attack.
Thallium Stress Test or Myocardial Perfusion Imaging or Nuclear Stress Test
This test uses radioactive substance called thallium injected into the blood stream when the patient is at maximum level of exercise on a treadmill to take pictures of the heart’s muscle cells using a special camera. It helps determine the extent of a coronary artery blockage, extent of damage from heart attack, cause of chest pain and helps measure blood flow of your heart muscle at rest and during stress.
Blood Tests
Blood testing may include, Cardiac enzymes (including troponin and creatine kinase), C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, homocysteine, lipoproteins, triglycerides, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and prothrombin. These tests help confirm that a heart attack has occurred and also helps determine the extent of damage caused by the attack. It also provides information about the time it takes for the blood to clot. It also helps assess future risk for coronary artery disease
Cardiac Catheterization
Cardiac catheterization or angiogram uses a thin hollow tube called a catheter to examine the inside of your heart’s blood vessels using special X-rays called angiograms. The catheter is threaded from a blood vessel in the groin, neck or arm to the heart. A dye is injected into the blood vessels from the catheter to make them visible by x-ray. This test is done for the evaluation of chest pain to show if plaque is narrowing or blocking coronary arteries, to evaluate heart muscle and valve function, to measure blood pressure within the heart and oxygen in the blood, and to perform percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) such as coronary angioplasty with stenting to open up blocked segments of a coronary artery.