Heart & Vascular Diagnosis & Testing

Find out if you have a heart or vascular condition so your doctor can recommend treatment to help you start feeling better.

Depending on your symptoms, he or she may order a test at Ballad Health to show a picture of your heart, check its rhythm or see how healthy your blood vessels are.

Heart Imaging

Visit a Ballad Health location in East Tennessee or Southwest Virginia when you need:

• Echocardiogram – Uses painless ultrasound to show the heart’s structure and valves in detail as the heart beats to determine how well the heart is functioning
• Transesophageal echocardiogram – Slides a thin tube down your throat to take ultrasound pictures from the back side of the heart
• Neonatal and fetal echocardiography – Uses ultrasound to show a picture of your baby’s heart before or after birth
• Cardiac MRI – Shows detailed images of your heart using magnets and radio waves
• Calcium scoring – Uses a high-speed CT scan to show whether calcium has built up in your heart arteries
• Heart PET scan – Gives you an injection of contrast dye that makes your heart and blood vessels show up on a special camera
• Cardiac catheterization – Inserts a thin, flexible tube into blood vessels near your heart to make them show up on a video X-ray
• Angiogram – Injects contrast dye into your blood vessels to make them show up through X-ray testing

Echocardiography Accreditation

You can expect highly qualified staff to correctly use up-to-date technology to take your echocardiogram and determine the results.

That’s because the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission gave accreditation in adult echocardiography to Johnson City Medical Center, Ballad Health Imaging Center at Med Tech Park in Johnson City, Wellmont CVA Heart Institute in Abingdon and Johnston Memorial Hospital.

Heart Stress Tests

To see how well your heart responds when it has to work harder than usual, you might get:

• Exercise stress test – Checks your heart rate as you walk on a treadmill or use another exercise machine
• Medicine stress test – Gives you a drug to mimic the effect of exercise on your heart if you can’t complete an exercise stress test
• Nuclear stress test – Injects contrast dye into your blood vessels so your doctor can see them during a stress test
• Stress echocardiogram – Takes ultrasound pictures of the heart before and after exercise testing
• PET stress test – Produces pictures of the heart with non-invasive nuclear imaging.

Heart Rhythm Tests

If you feel like your heart sometimes beats too fast or skips a beat, your doctor might ask you to get a test that measures the heart’s electrical activity.

Learn about the specific tests and other services you’ll find for heart rhythm disorders at Ballad Health.

Vascular (Blood Vessel) Tests

Your doctor may need to look for clots or check the blood pressure in arteries and veins in a certain area of your body. In that case, take advantage of Ballad Health’s complete vascular and vein services.