Heart Diagnostic Services

When it comes to heart disease, a prompt and accurate diagnosis is often vital. The advanced diagnostic services provided by Cedars-Sinai doctors, nurses and cardiac imaging specialists pave the way for a more comprehensive understanding of your condition, to allow for an innovative and unique care plan. Learn about the different diagnostic tests we offer.


Cardiac Amyloidosis

  • Blood or urine tests
  • Advanced imaging, including cardiac MRI or a pyrophosphate heart scan
  • Heart biopsy, if necessary
  • Genetic testing
  • Additional tests and evaluations from specialists

Cardiac Surgery



Congenital Heart Disease



General & Preventive Cardiology

The Noninvasive Cardiac Laboratory performs noninvasive diagnostic tests in the laboratory for the heart rhythm and heart function. Two key areas of focus are:

In addition, Cedars-Sinai also offers:


Genetic Disorders of Cardiovascular System

  • Clinical screening
  • Family genetic counseling
  • Genetic testing and interpretation of testing results
  • Inpatient and outpatient consultations

Heart Failure

  • Cardiac biopsy: samples a small piece of the heart to determine the cause of the heart muscle problem.
  • Cardiac MRI: a highly specialized type of MRI to study the heart muscle, valves, and arteries, with the capability to perform this in patients who have pacemakers.
  • Cardiomems implantable pulmonary artery pressure monitor: to guide medication treatment to reduce hospitalizations
  • Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX or CPET): a bicycle test that analyses the heart and lung function to determine cause of shortness of breath
  • Echocardiogram: ultrasound of the heart to check the heart muscle and valve function, with specialized components at Cedars-Sinai including 3D, contrast, and strain imaging
  • Heart catheterization: a catheter is passed into the heart to check for coronary artery blockages and measure the heart function
  • PET scan: a nuclear medicine study to search for heart muscle that would benefit from a stent or bypass surgery. Also a test used to look for sarcoidosis
  • Technitium pyrophosphate scan: a nuclear study to identify a type of amyloidosis in the heart
  • ZIO Patch, Holter monitors and implanted loop recorders: to detect heart rhythm abnormalities

Heart Transplant

  • Cardiac catheterization with angiography: A special substance is injected into the blood vessel that reveals the inside of the artery.
  • Cardiac imaging: Cedars-Sinai has a number of imaging modalities to detect acute and chronic rejection, including echocardiography, specialized cardiac MRI, and rubidium PET scanning.
  • DNA test
  • Endomyocardial biopsy: Performed to diagnose rejection in the first year post-transplantation. This is an invasive procedure used routinely to obtain small samples of heart muscle, primarily for detecting rejection of a donor heart following heart transplantation.
  • Non-invasive tests: We are currently utilizing non-invasive blood tests to detect rejection, including the AlloMap and donor-derived cell free DNA tests. The use of the AlloMap test has decreased the need for invasive biopsies by 80% in our program. In studies, we are utilizing biomarker analyses including intragraft mRNA transcripts and circulating miRNA.
  • Other tests: Our program routinely employs the T-cell immune function test to guide immunosuppression. This is one of the only tests available to let us know how immunoresponsive a patient is on immunosuppression.

Hypertension

  • 24 to 72-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring
  • 24-hour urine collection
  • Adrenal vein sampling
  • Echocardiography
  • Electrocardiography
  • Hormonal evaluation and confirmatory testing for suspected adrenal hypertension
  • Stress testing
  • Renal vascular ultrasound, CT or MR angiogram to rule out renal artery stenosis and fibromuscular dysplasia

Interventional Cardiology


Mechanical Circulatory Support

  • Automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD): Monitors rhythm and provides pacing or shock therapy as appropriate.
  • Cardiac biopsy: Samples a small piece of the heart to determine the cause of the heart muscle problem.
  • Cardiac MRI: A highly specialized type of MRI to study the heart muscle, valves and arteries. Cedars Sinai has the capability to perform this in many patients who have pacemakers.
  • Cardiomems implantable pulmonary artery pressure monitor: Guides medication treatment to reduce hospitalizations.
  • Cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPX or CPET): A bicycle test that analyzes the heart and lung function to determine the cause of shortness of breath.
  • Echocardiogram: Ultrasound of the heart to check the heart muscle and valve function, with specialized components at Cedars-Sinai incuding 3D, contrast and strain imaging.
  • Left heart catheterization: A catheter is passed into the heart to check for coronary artery blockages and measure heart function.
  • PET scan: A nuclear medicine study to search for heart muscle that would benefit from a stent or bypass surgery. Also a test used to look for sarcoidosis.
  • Right heart catheterization: A catheter is inserted into the right internal jugular vein and advanced into the right heart and pulmonary artery for hemodynamic assessment.
  • Technetium pyrophosphate scan: A nuclear study to identify a type of amyloidosis in the heart.
  • ZIO patch, Holter monitors and implanted loop recorders: Detect heart rhythm abnormalities.

Pulmonary Hypertension

  • 6-minute walking test
  • Cardiopulmonary exercise testing
  • CT scan
  • Echocardiogram
  • MRI
  • Pulmonary function tests
  • Right and left heart catheterization

Regenerative Medicine

  • 6-minute walking test
  • Cardiopulmonary exercise testing
  • Coronary reactivity testing
  • Echocardiogram
  • Electrocardiogram
  • Exercise bike testing
  • Exercise treadmill testing
  • High-resolution CT scan
  • Holter monitor (24-hour electrocardiogram monitoring)
  • MRI
  • PECT-CT
  • Peripheral artery Doppler imaging
  • Right and left cardiac catheterization studies
  • ZioPatch (14 day electrocardiogram monitoring)

Valvular Heart Disease


Women's Heart Disease

Get Help or Make an Appointment

Call or send a message to the Heart team. You can also have us call you back at your convenience.

7 days a week, 6 am - 9 pm PT

(1-800-233-2771)