The cardiovascular system ensures that muscles and bones receive oxygenated blood. Common procedures to evaluate heart health include stress testing, nuclear heart scans, and echocardiography. Stress testing monitors the heart's response to physical exertion to detect issues like coronary heart disease. Nuclear heart scans use radioactive tracers and cameras to capture heart images at rest and under stress to evaluate muscle damage, pumping ability, and blood flow. Echocardiography uses ultrasound to create moving pictures of the heart to examine valves, structure, muscle function, and blood clots. Regular checkups using these non-invasive procedures can help prevent dangerous heart issues.

1. Chapter 5
Cardiovascular
Procedures
By.. Michael Kissiedu

2. What is the cardiovascular system and what are some of the
Procedures involved in it
• The cardiovascular system is one of the major body systems that makes
sure that the muscles and bones are supplied with the proper amount of
oxygen and blood.
• There are several procedures involved in making sure the heart is in a
good shape but I’m just going to talk about the three methods I’m familiar
with upon doing my research.
• They are as follows;
• Stress testing
• Nuclear heart scan
• Echocardiography

3. Stress Testing: How it works and the Uses
• Stress testing provides information about how your heart works during
physical stress.
• Some heart problems are easier to diagnose when your heart is working hard
and beating fast.
• During stress testing, a patient is required to walk or run on a treadmill, or
stationery bike to conduct the test. This is done to make sure your heart is
beating fast or hard.
• If a patient cant walk on the treadmill or ride the bike due to medical issues
such as arthritis, a doctor can give the patient medicine to make sure the heart
beats hard as if the patient is doing an exercise. And this process is called
pharmacological stress test.

4. Use of Stress testing
• Doctors use stress testing to
determine coronary heart disease
(CDH).
• CDH is a disease in which a
plaque builds up in the arteries to
prevent blood and oxygen supply.
• The build-up of this plaques can
cause blood clot which leads to
chest pain called angina and
heart attack.
• Also stress testing can help
determine any abnormalities in
the body such as shortness of
breath, heart rate, blood pressure
and electrical activities.

5. Nuclear heart Scan: How it works and the Uses
• A nuclear heart scan is a test that provides important information about
the health of your heart.
• For this test, a safe, radioactive substance called a tracer is injected into
your bloodstream through a vein. The tracer travels to your heart and
releases energy.
• Also special cameras outside of your body detect the energy and use it to
create pictures of your heart. Usually, two sets of pictures are taken during
a nuclear heart scan.
• The first picture is taking after a stress test, thus when your heart is
beating hard and first.
• The second picture is taking after your heart is at rest and beating normal.

6. What are the Purposes
• Nuclear heart scan is used for three main purposes;
• To look for damaged heart muscle. Damage might be the result of a
previous heart attack, injury, infection, or medicine. And this method is
called myocardial viability test.
• To see how well your heart pumps blood to your body. When a nuclear
heart scan is done for this purpose, it's called ventricular function
scanning.
• To check how blood is flowing to the heart muscle. When a nuclear heart
scan is done for this purpose, it's called myocardial perfusion scanning.

7. Some pictures of Nuclear Heart Scan

8. Echocardiography: How it works and the Uses
• Echocardiography is a painless test that uses sound waves to create moving pictures of your
heart. The pictures show the size and shape of your heart. They also show how well your heart's
chambers and valves are working.
• Echo also can pinpoint areas of heart muscle that aren't contracting well because of poor blood
flow or injury from a previous heart attack.
• It can also be use to determine heart problems in infants and children.

9. Purposes of echocardiography
The physician may use echo to determine the following;
1. Heart valve problems. Echo can show whether any of your heart valves don't open normally or
close tightly.
2. Blood clots or tumors. If you've had a stroke, you may have echo to check for blood clots or
tumors that could have caused the stroke.
3. Problems with your heart's structure. Echo can detect congenital heart defects, such as holes in
the heart. Congenital heart defects are structural problems present at birth. Infants and children
may have echo to detect these heart defects.
4. Heart muscles that are weak and aren't pumping well. This maybe be due to weakening and also
might mean that the area isn't getting enough blood supply, a sign of coronary heart disease.

10. Pictures of Echocardiography method

11. Conclusion
• The various methods of cardiovascular seems very helpful to help patients
prevent any dangerous health issues and I think as time goes on there
would be more procedures that can save more life’s. On that note
everyone should make sure they go for check up once or twice every six
months to make sure they are in great condition.