• The only nuclear cardiology program in the state of Minnesota to use attenuation correction technology routinely for all patients.
• Accuracy that rivals the published data from the best imaging centers worldwide (e.g. Cedar Sinai, Los Angeles or Emory University, Atlanta).
• First mobile nuclear scanner in the world with attenuation correction technology.
• One of only three facilities in Minnesota that use an acute chest pain protocol 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Annual procedures:

• 7,300 nuclear perfusion scans
• 4,500 stress tests (exercise or pharmacologically stressed and stress echo procedures)
• 1,000 mobile nuclear procedures

Mobile Nuclear Scanner
The Central Minnesota Heart Center developed the first-of-its-kind mobile nuclear scanner with attenuation correction technology. The scanner uses technology that had never been available on a mobile coach before.

Although there have been significant technological advancements in nuclear cardiology in recent years, the mobile industry had not kept pace. At the Heart Center’s request, ADAC Laboratories in Milpitas, California, engineered this state-of-the-art dual-headed scanner to fit in a mobile coach.

To image an organ such as the heart, the scanner must “see through” ribs, muscle, skin and other tissues of various depths and densities. These tissues can hinder the rays used during scanning, which is called attenuation. Attenuation can create a defect in the final picture, leading to inaccurate diagnosis.

Attenuation correction technology minimizes the likelihood of this type of artifact and creates a more accurate picture of the patient’s heart. The Central Minnesota Heart Center was the first heart hospital in Minnesota that used attenuation correction technology routinely for all nuclear cardiology scans.