St. Luke’s advanced cardiac technology available at St. Luke’s University Health Network enables physicians to detect and correct a potentially life-threatening heart condition before symptoms even develop, said St. Luke’s cardiologist Purujit Thacker, MD.

“Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of people in the United States and the world over,” he said. “As a cardiologist specializing in advanced cardiac testing, my greatest source of satisfaction is preventing a heart attack or stroke, or a heart condition from getting to a point where a patient needs serious intervention.

“Every day I see people coming in with massive heart attacks, people whose hearts have stopped or family members who have lost a loved one, so I’ll do anything to prevent that from happening. That’s where my passion is.”

People who benefit from advanced cardiac testing include those who have had a mild heart attack or cardiovascular disease symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath.

In the future, it will be used more commonly for people with high risk factors like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, cardiovascular disease family history, sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy diet or smoking history.

Born in India, the son of an OB/GYN and a cardiac surgeon, Dr. Thacker has been exposed to medicine throughout his life. “When I was a kid, my dad took me with him to the clinic, where I watched him talk to patients.”

After finishing a three-year cardiology fellowship at St. Luke’s University Hospital in Bethlehem, Dr. Thacker wanted to specialize in cardiac imaging. So, he completed a two-year fellowship in cardiac imaging at Houston Methodist Hospital, one of the country’s most advanced cardiac imaging centers.

Raymond Durkin, MD, chairman, St. Luke’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, encouraged him to return to St. Luke’s to help develop the advanced cardiac imaging studies program.

“St. Luke’s is ahead of the curve in its cardiac imaging capabilities,” Dr. Thacker said. “Only a few cardiovascular centers in the country have a dedicated cardiac imaging department.”

Advanced cardiovascular tests include:

• Coronary calcium scoring, which uses computed tomography (CT) scan to locate calcium deposits in heart arteries that could cause a heart attack. It’s typically used for patients without symptoms.

• Coronary CT, a more advanced test that looks inside the blood vessels of the heart.

• Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which shows the heart structure in detail – showing whether it’s beating properly and any scar tissue or other heart muscle damage.

• Cardiac positron emission tomography (PET), a noninvasive nuclear imaging test using radioactive tracers to produce pictures of the heart.

• 3D echocardiography, which uses ultrasound waves to produce moving images of heart structures. While this test is available at many health systems, St. Luke’s has physicians with the highest level of training in advanced technique echocardiology

• Cardiac catheterization, which uses a long, thin tube (catheter) inserted into the blood vessel in the patient’s groin or wrist and guided into the heart. A cardiologist injects a contrast dye into the catheter and uses X-rays to see how the dye travels through the blood vessels to check for blockages or heart problems.

Sometimes simple cardiac tests alone do not identify heart disease. For example, during his fellowship Dr. Thacker had a patient who had a common SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) test that was inconclusive. When the patient continued to have symptoms, his cardiologist referred him for advanced cardiac testing.

The advanced cardiac imaging team performed a PET scan that showed reduced blood flow and consequently, the patient received an angiogram.

“When we performed an angiogram that looked at the blood vessels, we found the patient had disease in multiple vessels of the heart, but it wasn’t detected in the SPECT test because, they were kind of balancing each other out,” he said. “We picked up disease that would’ve killed that person if it had remained undiagnosed.”

To reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, Dr. Thacker encourages you to have a healthy diet, exercise, not smoke and maintain a healthy weight.

“In our modern world, everybody is at risk for cardiovascular disease,” he said. “You should proactively talk about it with your physician.”

Dr. Thacker sees patients in Bethlehem. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Thacker or another St. Luke’s Cardiology Associates cardiologist, call 484-526-7800.