A nuclear stress test is one of the most common tests cardiologists use to diagnose and monitor many heart diseases . . The test measures the blood flow to the heart at rest and after activity, or stress
The test shows how blood flows to your heart and can help your doctor know:
- If you have heart disease
- How well treatment - medicine, such as angioplasty or heart surgery - works
- Whether you are healthy enough to begin a program of exercise or need to undergo surgery
traditional nuclear stress test uses a gamma camera, an imaging machine donut, take pictures of your heart. During the test, you get a shot of a harmless radioactive tracer is scanned and your heart at rest. Then you exercise or take medications to make your heart work harder and get another shot tracer and a second scan.
In a gamma camera, you need to lie completely still with your arms above your head, and each scan takes about 20 minutes. Some people with back pain, difficulty breathing, claustrophobia, and other health problems find it difficult to lie still in the scanner.
In this video, Prem Soman, MD, Ph.D., FACC, director of nuclear cardiology at UPMC heart Vascular Institute, explains how work stress nuclear tests using both a gamma camera and D -SPECT® newest nuclear cardiology camera, which offers many benefits to certain patients, including:
- a more comfortable test to sit instead of lie
- times faster scanning
- A lower dose of radiation
to learn more about nuclear stress tests, UPMC visit online. To see the D-SPECT camera in action and how nuclear stress tests are performed at UPMC, please see this video.
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