Medical Checkup
Cardiac Ammonia PET Scan
What is cardiac ammonia PET scan?
It is an examination to check myocardial blood flow and diagnose diseases and conditions such as angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, etc. In this examination, radioactive chemical (ammonia) is injected into the body, and it is to see how the chemical gathered in cardiac by using PET-CT.
Features of cardiac ammonia PET scan
- 1) It takes 2-3 hours including preparation.
- 2) Although using radiation emitted drug, the amount of radiation is very small as X-ray.
- 3) Scanning images at rest and under load can be taken at once.
- 4) We can grasp the cardiac condition precisely by a data which expressed myocardial blood flow numerically.
Features of cardiac ammonia PET scan in Nagoya PET Imaging Center
The number of cardiac ammonia PET scans in Nagoya PET Imaging Center is more than 2,000 cases. The complication regarding the examination has never occurred before. As screening of myocardial ischemic, it is utilized to follow up after revascularization treatment.
Nagoya PET Imaging Center in Kaikoukai Healthcare Group introduced PET in 2001 and PET-CT in 2004.
We were the first facility to introduce the PET-CT for clinical use in Japan.
There are about 400 PET facilities in Japan, but not many facilities perform cardiac ammonia PET scan. Because ammonia has a very short physical half-life (10 minutes), it is necessary to have a dedicated facility and an accelerator called cyclotron to synthesize ammonia.
1. Supersensitive PET-CT
Nagoya PET Imaging Center has introduced 2 PET-CT. Among them, the new model was introduced for the third in Japan and the first to introduce in Tokai area and its diagnostic accuracy was further improved because of the improvement of sensitivity and resolution compared to the conventional equipment. This improvement made the examination time short and the less burden on the body because of the smaller amount of medicine administration.
2. Experienced medical staff
The examination is conducted by a nuclear medicine physician, a member of Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. In addition, we have experienced professional staff in all occupations such as nurses, radiological technologists, and drug manufacturing technicians.
3. Reliable attendant service for examination
A dedicated staff who speaks in the foreign language will manage the whole procedure of the day for smooth examination, such as reception, interpreter support, send-off and so on.
