What to Expect:
Gated Blood Pool Scan (RVG)

Once you arrive in the department, the nuclear medicine technologist will inject a non-radioactive substance into a vein in your arm. This injection tags to your red blood cells. There are no side effects from the injection.
You will be asked to wait approximately 20 minutes. This allows time for the injection to circulate and tag properly to the cells. The technologist will then bring you into the imaging room.
The technologist will place EKG leads on your chest so that we can record your heartbeat during the exam.
You will then receive another injection in your arm. This injection is a radioactive substance that tags to the first injection. There are no side effects from this injection. This will give us a radioactive tag of your red blood cells. We are able to view the tagged cells with our gamma camera. In this way, we are able to see the volume of blood being pumped through the chambers of your heart during the test.
You will be asked to lie down on our camera bed and the nuclear medicine camera will come very close to your chest. All you need to do at this point is lie very still. The camera will be rotated around you so that we are able to see your heart in different projections.

The test takes approximately one to two hours.

Find out more:

For more information about nuclear cardiology at The Miriam Hospital, call 401-793-4450 or e-mail MLCampbe@Lifespan.org.