A MUGA Scan (Multiple Gated Acquisition scan) is a noninvasive tool for assessing the function of the heart. The MUGA scan produces a moving image of the beating heart, and from this image several important features can be determined about the health of the cardiac ventricles (the heart’s major pumping chambers).
During a A MUGA scan a small amount of a radioactive substance or tracer (called a radionuclide) is put into the patient's blood.and a special camera is used to take pictures of your heart as it pumps blood. The test measures how well your heart pumps with every heartbeat. The test is called “multi-gated” because a gamma camera takes pictures at specific times during each heartbeat. The test may be done while you stay still (resting scan), exercise or both. The test measures your ejection fraction, which is the amount of blood pumped out of the heart during each heartbeat (contraction). It’s usually expressed as a percentage. For example, an ejection fraction of 60 percent means that 60 percent of the total amount of blood in the left ventricle when it is full is pumped out with each heartbeat. A normal ejection fraction is between 50 and 75 percent.