The University of South Alabama Heart Center was recently granted accreditation by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL).
The Heart Center at USA is one of a growing number of nuclear cardiology laboratories in the United States to be recognized for its commitment to high quality patient care and its provision of quality diagnostic testing.
“Throughout the country, nuclear stress testing remains the most commonly employed non invasive technique for the evaluation of chest pain to exclude coronary artery disease (CAD) or cholesterol blockage of the arteries to the heart muscle,” said Dr. Clara Massey, professor of internal medicine and chief of cardiology at the USA College of Medicine.
Each year, approximately 5.5 million stress nuclear cardiology studies are performed in the United States. During the testing procedure, the heart is evaluated at rest and during exercise using a small amount of radioisotope. Both the pump function and the blood flow of the heart are assessed.
“Image acquisition, processing and physician interpretation determine the accuracy of any test and, therefore, the quality of the examination,” Dr. Massey said. “Being designated a nationally accredited ICANL lab means that every aspect of nuclear stress testing at the USA Heart Center, from image acquisition to physician interpretation, has been evaluated and has met the standards required for optimal patient care.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, costing society over $83.7 billion each year in health services, medications and lost work time due to disability. One American dies every 32 seconds of cardiovascular disease. For more information on cardiovascular disease, visit http://www.cdc.gov./
