Nuclear Cardiology Technology Study Guide

Abstract

If anyone is serious about passing the NMTCB’s nuclear cardiology technology examination, acquiring further knowledge of nuclear cardiology, or just obtaining some continuing education units, this study guide is certainly the one to purchase. It is quite informative and leaves no aspect of nuclear cardiology behind. The authors are virtually a who’s who of experts in the nuclear cardiology field, and even though the price tag is a bit high, it is certainly worth the money. The 211-page, 16-chapter soft-cover study guide, published by the SNM in 2010, is designed to help technologists who want to enhance their career by earning the esteemed credentials NCT to put after their name and on their resume. It includes every aspect of the on-demand NMTCB examination: instrumentation/procedures/processing, anatomy/ physiology/pathology, radiopharmaceuticals/interventional drugs, nonpharmacologic (exercise) stress testing, and patient care. It also includes a comprehensive color atlas, a total of 14 continuing education units that are optional but affordable ($14.21 per credit), and a 140-question mock examination with the answers to boot! Not to mention that every chapter ends with follow-up questions to make sure the reader absorbs the information being presented. The guide begins by introducing the reader to basic cardiac anatomy and physiology. It discusses the heart chambers; electrophysiology; coronary artery distribution; heart valves, including the great vessels; cardiac diseases; and normal and abnormal physiologic responses to stress. The second chapter is an excellent complement to the first chapter as it segues from anatomy and physiology to the most basic of cardiac tests, the electrocardiogram. The electrocardiography chapter discusses the leads and which wall of the heart each lead records, the QRS complex, 8 steps to interpreting the electrocardiogram, and how to recognize the different rhythms of the heart and their origin, and the chapter finishes with the different disorders and disruptions of normal conduction. Because many programs do not focus on electrocardiograms and interpretation, this chapter really does make comprehension of electrocardiograms easier for even the most experienced technologist. The third chapter moves from the simplest of cardiac tests, the electrocardiogram, to other cardiac examinations that do not fall under the myocardial perfusion umbrella. These examinations include equilibrium radionuclide angiocardiography or multigated acquisitions, the first-pass study, myocardial infarction, myocardial viability, and bidirectional cardiac shunt studies. This is also a great chapter that introduces some of the more obscure myocardial agents such as 18 F-FDG, metaiodobenzylguanidine, BMIPP (b-methyl-p-iodophenylpentadecanoic acid), and 111 Inantimyosin, as well as the more traditional in vivo or in