What is Radionuclide Angiography, Resting and Exercise?
Radionuclide angiography (RNA) is an imaging procedure used to examine the heart’s chambers in motion. A special camera will make recordings of your heart wall at work, like a motion picture. These recordings will be synchronized with your heartbeat by using your EKG (electrocardiogram, or recording of the heart’s electrical activity). A cardiologist (a physician who specializes in heart disease) specially trained in nuclear cardiology will study the films to evaluate your heart’s pumping function and ejection fraction (the volume of blood pumped out with each heartbeat). An RNA procedure with rest and exercise is performed to assist the physician in assessing the heart’s function during exercise after comparing it to the heart’s function at rest. If the heart muscle does not move in a normal manner, and/or a less-than-normal amount of blood is pumped out by the heart, this can indicate one or more of the following: • injury to the heart muscle, possibly as a result of decreased blood
