The UAB Acute Chest Pain Center was established in November of 1999 as the first in the state to routinely use sophisticated imaging technology in an emergency setting to help diagnose heart attacks.

UAB physicians will use state-of-the-art technology called myocardial nuclear perfusion imaging (MPI) to assess the heart’s circulation in order to know if a person with angina (chest pain) or other symptoms is having a heart attack.

This technique allows physicians to take an immediate ‘snapshot’ of the heart’s circulation in the emergency department and to identify patients with suspected unstable angina.

The majority of the five million adults who arrive each year in the nation’s emergency departments with chest pain do not have heart disease and are not having a heart attack. The symptoms of heart attack can be difficult to diagnose, however. MPI uses a scintillation camera to photograph the blood flow in a patient’s heart.

The technology will be available at UAB 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help identify low risk patients who may be treated as outpatients and safely sent home from the Emergency Department. The scintillation camera has been used at UAB in the assessment of coronary artery disease, but will now be used routinely in an emergency setting.

Disciplines across UAB and the regional emergency medical system are working together to make possible these new UAB chest pain protocols. As part of this improved response system, UAB personnel will give routine feedback to emergency personnel who transport patients to UAB.