Cardiological nuclear medicine was divided into two parts: diagnosis in vivo and diagnosis in vitro. Diagnosis in vivo need to put radioactive agents into patients, through dynamic and metabolic processes of radioactive agents and by using outside-body devices to gain parameters and images which reflect the physical and functional condition of heart, heart valves and blood supply of coronary arteries. Diagnosis in vitro does not put radioactive agents into patients. It used radioimmunoassays and immunoradiometricassays. Using patients’ blood samples, they quantify some agents with low concentration in blood. These are uninvasive tests with high accuracy that useful in diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of various diseases.
Heart Diseases, Nuclear Medicine

Echocardiography is one of the most frequently used techniques for diagnosing cardiovascular diseases. Over the last twenty years, technological advances have enabled the application of high-quality imaging. Important recent developments have occurred in echocardiography that are already being used clinically. Equipment and hardware is now available to produce real time three-dimensional and contrast enhanced imaging.. Tissue Doppler and stress echocardiography have provided potential benefit to analyze hemodynamic information of heart. This review discusses each of these new developments and their potential impact on the practice of echocardiography and cardiology in general.
Cardiology ; Cardiovascular Diseases ; Echocardiography* ; Echocardiography, Stress ; Heart ; Hemodynamics ; Nuclear Medicine*

Myocardial perfusion scintigraphy is currently by far the most commonly performed cardiac nuclear study, constituting approximately one third of all nuclear medicine procedure. It plays an important role in the diagnosis, prognosis, risk assessment and management of heart disease. Aim of this review is to describe recent evolution of myocardial perfusion imaging on the focus of diagnosis of coronary artery disease. In addition, current status of other imaging modalities will be reviewed.
Coronary Artery Disease ; Coronary Vessels ; Heart Diseases ; Myocardial Perfusion Imaging ; Nuclear Medicine ; Perfusion ; Perfusion Imaging ; Prognosis ; Risk Assessment ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon