Nuclear Cardiology:
Nuclear Cardiac Stress tests are common exams to look at the heart muscles blood supply under resting and stress conditions.
The test will take 3 1/2 - 4 hrs. The patient will be injected with a tracer and then wait for 45-60 min for tracer distribution, at that time images of the heart will take place on the gamma camera, these images are resting images (looking at the heart while in a resting state).
A stress test will then be performed either by physical (treadmill) or chemical (drug) means. During the stress test another dose of the tracer will be injected. The patient will then wait 45-60 min and then have the stress images performed.
The imaging consists of lying on your back with your arms extended above your head while the scanner detectors rotate around your chest acquiring the images for ~20 min. Lying still is important to get good images.
Patient preparation involves being without food for 6 hours prior to the study and off all caffeine products for 24 hours prior. Some medications may be held until after the completion as well.
