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When combined with stress either through exercise or the use of a pharmacological agent, the scan helps determine
if the heart muscle is getting the blood supply it needs.
As coronary artery disease (CAD) progresses, the heart muscle may not receive enough blood when under stress
(for example, when exercising). This often results in chest pain called angina pectoris. On the other hand,
there may be no outward physical signs of the disease. If CAD is limiting blood flow to part of your heart,
the stress test with the radioactive tracer may be useful in detecting the presence and significance of CAD.
A nuclear stress test consists of two parts, rest and stress:
- The tracer will be administered by injection through your IV while you are at rest and a gamma camera
will take pictures of your heart.
- The tracer will be administered to you one other time by an IV injection during the stress portion of
the test and additional pictures will be taken of your heart.
This allows the doctor to compare the amount of blood flowing through your heart muscle during stress and
at rest.
Insert pictures (example of film read by rad)
The amount of radiation you will be exposed to is comparable to that from an X-ray or CAT (CT) scan.
The half life of the radioactive tracer is 6 hours. This means that half of the dose you are given will decay
or leave your body every 6 hours. Generally, the tracer is cleared from your body in 24 hours by natural processes.
You won’t feel any different after you are injected with the tracer and will be able to drive yourself home.
Download Nuclear Stress Tests (Adobe PDF document)
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