Book a cardiac scan in Pune
ECG, TMT, Echo & Holter at NABL-accredited imaging centres · reports read by senior radiologists.
All assessments
2D Echo (Echocardiography)
Echocardiography · 30 min
ECG (Electrocardiogram)
12-lead ECG · 10 min
TMT (Treadmill Stress Test)
Treadmill stress test · 45 min
Holter Monitoring (24-hr)
Holter · 24-hr
Stress Echocardiography
Stress echo · 45 min
Cardiac — what it shows, and who it is not for
Written for patients: what the scan can and cannot answer, the radiation involved, what to tell the team beforehand, and what the radiologist's report will say.
What Cardiac shows
The heart as a working pump, approached from four directions. An ECG records its electrical activity; an echocardiogram uses ultrasound to show the chambers, valves and pumping action moving in real time; a treadmill test and a stress echo watch what happens when the heart is deliberately asked to work hard; and a Holter records the rhythm continuously through an ordinary day and night. Between them they answer questions about rhythm, structure, valve function and behaviour under load. What none of them shows is the coronary arteries themselves — no ECG, echo or treadmill test pictures an artery, they only infer that one is narrowed from how the heart behaves. When the question is where exactly the narrowing is, a CT coronary angiogram or an invasive catheter angiogram is the test.
Nothing enters the body in any of these tests. An ECG picks up the heart's own electrical signal through ten sticky electrodes on the chest and limbs and takes well under a minute to record. An echocardiogram is an ultrasound scan of the heart: a gel-coated probe is moved over the chest wall while the heart is imaged in motion, with Doppler adding the direction and speed of blood across each valve — this is where the audible whooshing comes from. A treadmill test records the ECG continuously while you walk on a belt that gets faster and steeper in stages, until a target heart rate is reached or a symptom stops the test. A stress echo adds ultrasound images taken immediately before and after that effort — or after a drug that mimics it — to see whether any part of the heart muscle stops moving normally once demand rises. A Holter is a small recorder taped in place and worn for 24 hours while you go about a normal day.
Safety and radiation
None of these tests uses ionising radiation — there is no X-ray dose at all in an ECG, an echocardiogram, a Holter or a treadmill test, and they can be repeated as often as clinically useful. The risk lies somewhere else entirely, and it belongs specifically to the stress tests: pushing the heart hard is how the test works, and in a small number of people that provokes chest pain, a significant rhythm disturbance or a fall in blood pressure. That is exactly why a stress test is performed in a room with a doctor present, continuous monitoring and a defibrillator to hand, why it is stopped the moment a stopping rule is met, and why it is not done at all when the heart is known to be unstable. A resting ECG or echocardiogram carries no such risk.
Who should not have a Cardiac scan
- Unstable chest pain, or a recent heart attack
- Chest pain that is new, worsening or happening at rest, and a heart attack within the last few days, are reasons not to perform a stress test — the test asks the heart to do the very thing that is already failing. Resting tests are safe and are usually what is done instead. Stress testing after an infarct happens later, on a defined protocol, once the picture is stable. The same applies to acute inflammation of the heart muscle or its lining, and to any acutely unwell patient.
- Uncontrolled arrhythmia, or severe aortic stenosis
- A rhythm disturbance that is not controlled, and a severely narrowed aortic valve causing symptoms, both make exercise testing hazardous, because exercise is what tips each of them over. An echocardiogram is done first in anyone with a known or suspected valve problem, precisely so this is known before a treadmill is considered.
- Blood pressure that is very high on the day
- Exercise raises blood pressure further, so it is measured before the test starts and a treadmill test is deferred when the reading is well above target — departments commonly use a threshold in the region of 200 systolic or 110 diastolic. This is a postponement, not a cancellation: the test is rebooked once the pressure is controlled.
- Being unable to walk on a treadmill
- Arthritis, a previous stroke, peripheral arterial disease, severe breathlessness at rest or any mobility limitation makes a treadmill test either unsafe or uninterpretable, because the heart never reaches the workload the test depends on. There is a well-established alternative — a pharmacological stress test, where a drug is given into a vein to make the heart behave as if it were exercising. Say what you can and cannot manage when you book, so the right test is arranged first time.
- Asthma or wheezy lung disease, if a vasodilator drug is planned
- Adenosine and dipyridamole, the drugs used for vasodilator stress testing, can trigger severe bronchospasm in people with asthma or other bronchospastic lung disease, and they are avoided in that situation. Dobutamine, which works differently, is generally used instead. Tell the team about any wheeze, inhaler use or lung disease before the test is booked, not on arrival.
- Caffeine and certain medicines before a pharmacological stress test
- Caffeine directly blocks the drugs used for vasodilator stress, so a scan can be wasted by a single cup of coffee. Avoid coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, chocolate and decaffeinated coffee for 12 to 24 hours beforehand as instructed, and mention any theophylline-based tablet or inhaler. Which of your regular heart medicines to take or hold on the morning of a stress test — beta blockers especially, since they blunt the heart-rate response and can make the test uninterpretable — is decided by the doctor who requested it, never on your own.
- Practicalities for a 24-hour Holter
- The recorder and its electrodes must stay dry, so you cannot shower or bathe while wearing it. Tell the team about any adhesive or skin allergy, and keep the symptom diary honestly and by the clock — the report's most valuable line is whether what you felt matched what the trace was doing at that minute.
When a Cardiac is ordered
- Chest pain or tightness, particularly on exertion
- Palpitations, dizziness, or a blackout
- Breathlessness and suspected heart failure
- A murmur heard on examination, or known valve disease
- Follow-up in hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol
- Assessment before major surgery
- After a heart attack, and during cardiac rehabilitation
- Rheumatic heart disease surveillance, and stroke workup
Contrast and preparation
None of the routine cardiac tests uses contrast, dye or an X-ray injection. An echocardiogram occasionally uses a microbubble agent when the chamber outline is genuinely hard to see, and a pharmacological stress test uses a drug — dobutamine, adenosine or dipyridamole — given into a vein to make the heart respond as though exercising; neither is contrast in the CT or MRI sense. Preparation matters far more here than contrast does: a light meal rather than a heavy one before a stress test, comfortable shoes and clothes you can walk in, no chest oil or heavy moisturiser where the electrodes must stick, and clear instructions from the requesting doctor about which regular medicines to take that morning.
What your report will cover
An ECG report describes the rate, the rhythm and where it originates, the conduction intervals, the electrical axis, and any pattern suggesting thickening, strain, a previous infarction or ongoing ischaemia. An echocardiogram reports each chamber's size, wall thickness and motion, the ejection fraction as a percentage, each valve's structure with any leak or narrowing across it, the pericardium, and an estimate of pulmonary artery pressure. A treadmill report gives the exercise duration and workload achieved, peak heart rate against the age-predicted target, the blood pressure response, symptoms, ST-segment changes and the reason the test was stopped, concluding as positive, negative or inconclusive. A Holter report gives total beats, heart-rate range, the number and type of ectopic beats, any pauses or arrhythmic episodes, and whether your diary entries matched them.
The path from booking to results
Book in the app
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A phlebotomist visits home at your chosen time — or drop by a partner lab instead.
Processed at an NABL lab
Every sample is handled at one of our accredited labs, tracked end to end.
Report + doctor review
Your digital report lands with a complimentary read-through from a doctor.