Yesterday (7/25/08), at the doctor’s recommendation I had a Nuclear Stress Test. It’s a fairly strait forward process. They inject you with a radio isotope, Thallium or Sestamibi, then wait a few minutes for the isotope to settle in the heart cells. Then a gamma camera is used to take a bunch of images of the heart from different angles which are combined into a 3D model. The model represents how much blood flow makes it to the muscle cells of the heart.

After the first set of pictures are taken you are stressed, typically on a treadmill (like a rat in a mad science experiment :???: ). Hooked up to a 12 lead ECG you run until your heart rate reaches 160 bpm. At that time you are injected with a second dose of the radio isotope and run for 2 more minutes. After a cool down period and snack more images are taken with the gamma camera.

When I get the results from the Doctor next week I’ll post more information.

I’m also scheduled to have a Cardiac MRI in the next two weeks.