Radioactive dye is an essential component of a nuclear stress test, as it’s used to produce vivid images of your heart and your blood flow as the heart is pumping. Radioactive dye is injected into the body to capture images of internal structures and to look for abnormalities. The radioactive nature of the dye is the main reason why some patients feel uneasy about undergoing the procedure. However, the test is primarily safe, and there are rarely any associated complications. Why Should I ... [Read More]
Cardiovascular
What is a Heart Murmur?
Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body because it does a very important job: pump blood through your body. As blood pumps in and out of the heart, a sound can be detected made up of two beats. Sometimes, another sound can interrupt the normal beating of the heart. This is called a heart murmur. A heart murmur is a different than a heart beat, typically sounding similar to a “whooshing” noise. A doctor can detect a heart murmur through a stethoscope. Although it may sound ... [Read More]
What Your Heart Is Trying to Tell You: Should You Get An Echocardiogram?
The heart and its beat are what keeps us alive. It happens to be the hardest working muscle in the human body. At an average rate of 80 times a minute, the heart beats about 115,000 times every day, or in a year, about 42 million times. A normal healthy heart beat is 60 to 100 beats per minute, or BPM. The job of the heart in the cardiovascular system is to pump and circulate oxygen and nutrient filled blood to the body’s organs, tissues, and cells through the passage of blood vessels. In ... [Read More]