Patients must be fasting for three hours prior to the test. Patients must also be free of caffeine of any type for 24 hours prior to testing. This includes coffee, tea, chocolate, white chocolate, aspirin compounds that contain caffeine, decaffeinated coffee or tea and other sodas which contain caffeine. Patients who are taking medications for lung problems, diabetes mellitus, congestive heart failure and Persantine may need to alter their medications.

A stress test is the common term for an exercise ECG, in which disks are attached to the patient's arms and legs as well as to the chest. While connected to the ECG machine, the patient exercises on a treadmill machine or stationary bicycle. This test reveals if exercising causes (or worsens) the arrhythmia and if there is evidence of inadequate blood flow to the heart (a condition known as ischemia).

No, this test has to be ordered by your physician. If you are concerned about heart disease or think you may have heart disease and want to have a nuclear test, you should discuss this with your doctor. He or she will order this test if he thinks this is an appropriate test for you.

The stress test report is sent to your doctor, who is the best person to explain to you the results of this test.

Eat a light meal 2 hours prior to the test. Then, do not eat, drink or smoke anything until after the test. Wear comfortable exercising shoes. Wear loose-fitting clothes so you can move freely. Ladies, please wear slacks and bra. Take all prescribed medications including inhalers, insulin (sugar pill) and blood pressure pills.

Yes, you can ask for a copy of the nuclear stress test report to be sent to you. However, these reports are often full of medical terminology and technical jargon. It is best that this report be explained to you by your physician.

A nuclear stress test provides information related to the physiology of your heart. The test results can show the damaged areas of the heart and provide information about the narrowing or blocking of the arteries of your heart. This information is useful for predicting of the likelihood of an adverse cardiac event (such as a heart attack, need for a cardiac bypass surgery or risk of dying from heart disease) in future.

The nuclear test is performed in a nuclear medicine or a nuclear cardiology laboratory. It could be in a hospital or in an outpatient setting in your physician's office. The procedure can be safely performed in either setting.

A stress test is a common test that doctors use to diagnose coronary artery disease. The test helps doctors see how the heart is working. A thallium stress test is a nuclear study in which a radioactive substance is injected into your bloodstream to show how blood flows through your arteries. Doctors can see if parts of the heart muscle are damaged or dead, or if there is a serious narrowing in an artery.

A nuclear stress test is a diagnostic test to diagnose the presence of coronary artery disease, or narrowing of the arteries of your heart. This test if often performed in patients who have symptoms which suggest the presence of heart disease, or sometimes even in the absence of any symptoms if your doctor suspects that there is a possibility of this condition.

A stress test is usually performed on a treadmill, while the heart activity is being monitored. The main purpose of a stress test is to see if there is any evidence of blocked arteries. If there are blockages, and not enough blood gets through during exercise, changes occur in the EKG's being recorded. Sometimes, a nuclear scan is done as well, to gather additional information about the blood flow.

How soon a nuclear stress test should be repeated in somebody with a normal test result depends upon a number of factors such as age, gender and presence of risk factors which predispose an individual's risk of heart disease (such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking or family history of heart disease). This also depends upon whether a person has had known heart disease which has been treated with angioplasty or heart bypass surgery.

Not necesarily. The test is often ordered if there is any suspicion of heart disease based upon your physician's assessment. This is similar to ordering a mammogram in women beyond the age of 40 years or a colonoscopy beyond the age of 50 years. Sometimes a stress test is ordered to exclude heart disease in persons enageged in certain professions such as commercial airline pilots, fire fighters etc.

Yes. Mammography, CT scanning, X-rays and nuclear stress tests can be performed on people who have the CYPHER? Stent.

Proper preparation is the most important thing you can do to help ensure you get the most accurate screening. Your doctor or a medical professional will give you complete instructions on what to do. Before any test, let your doctor know about any medications you are taking because they can affect the screening results.

A nuclear diagnostic test involves organs of the body and not specifically the heart. It involves the injection of radiopharmaceuticals (radioactive elements) into the body and then later imaging that particular organ of interest. For the heart, these tests are performed to diagnose the presence of coronary artery disease, to assess the severity of coronary artery disease and to determine the squeezing power of the heart (ejection fraction).

The first stage of a stress test is only 1.7 mph. If you're okay after 3 minutes at that speed then the speed increases. So just about anyone can take a stress test.

Even a stress test isn't 100% definitive. Certainly someone with a normal stress test is at lower risk than someone with an abnormal one. But plaque in an artery can sometimes go from an undetectable 20% blockage to a critical 99% blockage overnight, much like a volcano erupting. Unfortunately, this sort of situation is almost impossible to predict or prevent. Controlling blood pressure and cholesterol and taking aspirin can help, however. Yes and no.