Northeast Georgia Medical Center now has a new tool to help diagnose coronary artery disease.
Dr. Heather Westmoreland recently performed Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) Braselton’s first cardiac stress magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam, making NGMC Braselton the only hospital in northeast Georgia to offer the procedure.
“Offering cardiac stress MRI provides two big benefits to our patients,” says Dr. Westmoreland, a cardiologist with The Heart Center of NGMC. “First, the stress MRI provides detailed, high-speed images of the heart contracting and relaxing without exposing the patient to any radiation. Second, it’s an alternative for patients who have difficulty performing the exercises necessary for traditional exercise stress testing.”
Stress tests provide doctors with information about how well the heart performs under stress, and the images are used in the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease. The cardiac stress MRI first creates detailed images of the heart and its surrounding blood vessels while the patient is at rest. Then, the patient receives medication to increase blood flow, and a second round of images is taken so physicians can see whether the heart is healthy or if there are areas of the heart that are damaged.
