Download Nuclear Medicine MUGA Scan

ROPER ST. FRANCIS HEALTHCARE
Nuclear Medicine MUGA Scan
WHAT IS A MUGA SCAN?
WHEN IS A MUGA SCAN MORE
The Multiple Gated Acquisition scan (MUGA) is
a noninvasive tool that creates a moving image of
the beating heart. It is used for assessing the
health of the cardiac ventricles (the heart’s major
pumping chambers).
USEFUL THAN OTHER HEART
TESTS?
HOW IS A MUGA
SCAN PERFORMED?
A MUGA scan is performed by starting an IV and
drawing out a small amount of blood. The blood
is tagged with a radiotracer and then injected back
into the bloodstream.
Once the blood is tagged, EKG leads are placed on
the patient’s chest to track heart muscle
contractions. The patient is then placed under a
special gamma camera that is able to detect the
low-level radiation being given off by the red
blood cells. When the tagged red blood cells fill
the heart’s chambers the gamma camera is able to
capture their images creating an outline of the
heart. The final product is a movie of the heart
beating. The scan takes approximately one hour.
WHAT CAN BE LEARNED
FROM A MUGA SCAN?
There are several advantages to a MUGA scan over
other techniques, such as the echocardiogram. The
MUGA scan provides results that are very accurate.
Compared to other heart tests, these results are also
highly reproducible, meaning if the test is repeated
several times, nearly the same answer is always
obtained. Along with the noninvasive nature of the
test, these advantages make the MUGA scan ideal
for detecting subtle changes in cardiac function
that could be missed with other techniques.
A common clinical situation in which repeated
MUGA scans are useful is in following a patient’s
cardiac function during the delivery of
chemotherapy for cancer. Some chemo-therapeutic
agents can be quite toxic to the heart muscle. By
measuring the MUGA results periodically during
chemotherapy, oncologists can determine whether
it is safe to continue with the therapy, or whether
certain medications need to be stopped.
To Schedule a MUGA Scan,
call 402-5000.
Several important features of heart function can be
measured from the MUGA scan. If a patient has
had a heart attack, or other heart disease, the
MUGA scan can localize the portion of the heart
muscle that has sustained damage, and assess the
degree of damage. Most importantly, the MUGA
scan creates an accurate report of how well the
heart is pumping blood.
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