Cardiac imaging is a sub-specialty of diagnostic radiology. A cardiac radiologist organizes or performs and then interprets medical images to diagnose syndromes of the heart such as heart disease, permeable heart valves and defects in the size & shape of the heart.
Standard imaging tests are,
• Echocardiography
• Chest x-ray
• CT
• MRI
• Various radionuclide techniques.
Standard CT and magnetic resonance imaging have restricted application as a result of the heart perpetually beats, however quicker CT and magnetic resonance techniques will provide helpful cardiac images; typically patients are given a drug to slow the heart rate throughout imaging.
In electrocardiogram gating, the image recording is synchronized with the ECG providing data from many cardiac cycles that may be accustomed produce single images of designated points within the cardiac cycle.
CT gating uses the ECG to trigger the x-ray beam at the required portion of the cardiac cycle, exposing the patient to less radiation than gating that merely reconstructs data from solely the specified portion of the cardiac cycle and doesn't interrupt the x-ray beam.