nuclear stress test

nuclear stress test

by knb123 - 2017-04-12 16:16:32

I had a nuclear stress test, too. It was ordered instead of a treadmill test because the doctors weren't sure why my BP was so high (I was not on any medication for it). The test itself was uneventful: I was lying on a gurney in a little room, with the doctor next to me, watching the machine readout. The injection was no more than a little pinch--much like having a blood draw.

The interesting thing was that the doctors were "surprised" by the results: they said it suggested two areas of possible ischemic tissue. An angiogram was subsequently ordered. It turned out to be a false positive, i.e., my arteries were all clear except for very minor blockage (under 20 percent) in one artery. This is easily managed through medication (a statin I take daily).

I later learned that false positives are extremely common (because, as it was explained to me, they would rather have a dozen false positives than miss one "borderline" aberration).

The bottom line is, don't worry about that stress test.

Nuclear Stress Test

by islandgirl - 2017-04-12 16:17:56

I just had one a couple of weeks ago.  I had not had a stress test in many years, the last one being running on a treadmill.  I think it's normal to be apprehensive---I know I get that way.

They injected something and I had to wait about 45 minutes.  I think it was some kind of tracer that would concentrate in my heart.  My heart was scanned, then went to another room.  I reclined in a chair and they attached electrodes and bp cuff.  My EP perfromed the test.  He watched the EKG monitor and my bp was monitored and taken at certain intervals.  They injected something that increased my heartrate.  I was expecting it to be much worse than it was.  I did feel a little lightheaded.  I don't know if my ICD prevented my heart from going about 150 (the max setting).  I went back to another room and they scanned my heart again.  I think it took about 3 hours---not sure.  I had an echo afterwards.

No Big Deal

by doublehorn48 - 2017-04-12 16:20:02

Because  I was on meds that wouldn't let my heart rate go over 120, I had to get a nuclear stress test.  It was a couple of years ago, but as I recall, I got hot flashes and nothing else that was unpleasant.  My wife tells me I have a low tolererce to pain, she's wrong,  but there's really nothing to the test. If Macho Man  can  take the test you surely  will have no problems.  Good luck.

it is strange, maybe scary, but fine

by dwelch - 2017-04-13 01:08:46

I have a pacemaker, my fourth actually (fifth one in two weeks from yesterday).  And it has an upper limit on my pace, they can run me on the treadmill and it wont do what they want.  So I had to do the injection (why they didnt know this before I arrived in walking shoes and clothes I dont know).

Now understand with a pacemaker you go in every year and they interrogate the device, which part of the test is they run you up then run your pace down, and that one feels like someone is sitting on your chest.  But you get used to the idea of them mucking with you for some number of seconds a year.

So they gave me the injection, you might feel blah, blah, you okay?  I said sure I dont feel anything...THEN it hit me, a lot worse than the normal pacer test thing, but just relax and get through I think it was only a couple few minutes, and you are fully wired up and in the company of nurses/techs at least one watching the EKG, with a cardiologist down the hall, and best of all they do this every day all day long, you/me/we are not special, they know what this does and doesnt do to you and how to read your reactions...

Chemical stress tests

by donr - 2017-04-14 09:27:57

There are TWO of them & you did NOT specify whch you will be getting.  One uses an Echo Cardiograph (ultra sound device) & the other uses a standard ECG device.  The "Stress Echo" test takes longer to perform since the operator must image over a larger area & record what happens over several beats of the heart & examine different attributes - like valve functioning & wall thicknesses & volumes of the chambers.  I have never had one of these, but read abut them last night & conclude that it is milder than the second, & uses a different med to induce stress - Dobutamine, as another comment rreports.

The "Lexiscan Stress Test" uses a chemical called Lexiscan, which has a much faster effect which is very dramatic & can scare the &^%$# out of you if you are not prepared for it. Lexiscan very suddenly dilates the coronary arteries & you feel it very strongly, mainly in its effect on yur breathing, which gets very fast & labored.  This effect lasts about 10 seconds, then you recover quite rapidly.  Been there, done that twice, now.  IMNSHO, this test is about as un-fun as you can get! 

Below is a post I made a year ago, immediately after my second experience.

Lexiscan

by donr

2016-04-12 09:04:38

Conditions, Meds & Tests

381 views

2 comments

Sometime in the last month someone asked about the Lexiscan chemical stress test. Well, I just had one on Mon, 11 Apr & made a mental note to give some details about it for those interested.

Apparently everyone reacts differently to the test & an individual's reaction may NOT be the same in successive tests a year or so apart.

I had my last one THREE yrs ago & it was a real disaster - the most unpleasant experience I've ever experienced in testing. The effects came on in a rush & were most unpleasant - very bad SOB & a very light headed feeling for several minutes, followed by a headache.

I did NOT look fwd to this one & became very stressed out about it over the three week run-up to the test.

Here's what happened: I was first in the queue Mon AM. There were 4 of us, all multiple time victims. One of us was in for their THIRD go-round. Her experience was different on each of the first two, so she had zero idea what to expect this time around.

They use an artificially made radioactive tracer element called Technecium w/ a half-life of 6 hours, so it is all expelled from your body in about 5 half-lives - about 30 hrs. The tracer is used in several different scans & is mixed w/ different meds for the different parts of the body being scanned. They told me the name of the med used for heart muscle, but I cannot recall it.

They give you a small dose of it IV to start, you sit for 30 min for it to be absorbed by heart muscle & then lie on a scanner bed while a large head rotates about the chest scanning for the radioactivity from the heart muscle. It creates a whole slug of images showing where the Technecium gets absorbed while the heart is unstressed.

now comes the exciting part! they hook you up to an ECG & BP monitor & bring in two hypos - one w/ a second dose of Technecium & the other filled w/ the Lexiscan med. Here's how fast this goes: The nurse injects the Lexiscan into your IV, (the IV is in the back of the hand) followed by a small slug of saline to ensure all of the Lexiscan is in you. Then IMMEDIATELY the nuclear tech gives you the tracer.

It takes about 7 - 10 seconds for you to feel the effects & they are DRAMATIC! Suddenly you become very SOB & struggle to breathe. Then your BP drops like a stone as the Lexiscan med dilates your coronary arteries. You feel VERY light-headed & fuzzy. Also pretty darned weak. This lasts for perhaps a minute & you start coming back. W/i 5 min you are pretty near back to normal. You feel pretty washed out at this point & well may have a headache of variable severity, due to the arteries to the brain also being dilated. A decent cup of coffee clears that up in short order.

You sit for a while & then it's back to the scanner for a "Picture " of where the blood went while the heart was stressed & dilated. This time they hook you up to an ECG machine while taking the images.

The scans take 13min each. Total time for me was 3 hours from registration to walking out the door to leave.

For me this one was nowhere near as unpleasant as the first one - but I'm not volunteering for another one any time soon.

Donr

Running???

by Jax - 2017-04-15 02:06:29

I don't run on a treadmill or any place for that matter.  I have a bad knee and it's a hard test for me.  I won't take the med's to stress my heart - I get enough rest just living in the world. I bring my sneakers and do the best I can on the treadmill.  No running.   When I can't do anymore walking I let the tech know that he has to stop the treadmill.   I have to be in control.  

nuclear stress test

by rcescato - 2017-04-15 10:35:12

I had one last year. I did walk on the treadmill for a few minutes but it does increase your heart rate as if you were running. I was sweating by the end. Zig was really nothing. It did not take very long. Good Luck!!