Information for patients

Links

Wellington Hospital
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Clementine Churchill BMI (Harrow)
Lindo Wing, St Mary's Hospital

Patient testimonials

First, I can’t thank you enough for all your time, interest and care on Thursday.

Secondly, the one stop ‘plumb and sparks’ shop is seriously impressive, staffed by great, caring and efficient people who are fun. In about an hour to do an echo, treadmill test and take 49 blood samples etc. must be close to a W.R....

Seriously, from the patients point of view you are offering full diagnostics almost in the ‘golden hour’ whereas with most other approaches it takes more like a month! The expeditious approach apart from removing patients uncertainty which often weighs heavily means if necessary you are in to treatment almost immediately....

Patients will definitely feel that they and their quality of lfe is being put first.

Mr Y. (2010) Suffolk.

Myocardial Perfusion Scanning (MPS)

Nuclear scan showing large area of angina (white arrow).

Myocardial perfusion scanning is used to evaluate coronary artery disease. The scan uses a small amount of radioactive substance (thallium or technitian) which can be used to produce pictures of your heart. When the tracer is injected into the blood stream it travels to the heart muscle through the coronary arteries. The process can be visualized by a special camera. The test provides similar value to the Dobutamine Stress echocardiogram (DSE), and again has better sensitivity and specificity than an exercise treadmill test (ETT).

Do not eat or drink any products containing caffeine for 12 hours before the test. This includes coffee, tea, coca cola and chocolate. Do not eat anything for at least 4 hours before the test. If you are diabetic however you may take medication for your diabetes and you may eat normally as you would. You may drink water at any time but you must not smoke for 3 hours before the test. You should wear comfortable clothing and low heeled shoes or trainers so that you can walk on the treadmill.

We will normally ask you to walk on a treadmill or if you are unable to do so we will give you a medicine to simulate exercise. Your heart rhythm will be monitored with an ECG and your blood pressure will be recorded at several times. The tracer will be injected through a vein approximately 1 minute before you stop exercising. You will then be asked to lie flat on a imaging table whilst a special camera circles slowly around your chest for about 30 minutes. You will be asked to stay in the department and not to exercise and 4 hours later the test will be repeated without any exercise.

If a large area of problem is found, a coronary angiogram may be needed.