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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Re: thallium stress test
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Re: thallium stress test
by CCF Cardio MD - MTR, Jan 01, 1995 12:00AM
Posted By CCF CARDIO MD - MTR on December 11, 1998 at 11:16:36:
In Reply to: thallium stress test posted by james m. on December 09, 1998 at 19:49:27:
would eating breakfast and drinking coffee before a thallium stress test be more likley to give a false positive (make the dr. think something is wrong even though it isn't)or a false negative (make dr. think nothing is wrong even though something is).
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Dear James, thank you for your question. You should not eat before a stress test because you may develop nausea during the test and your stomach needs to be empty since you could vomit. Caffeine will interfere with a certain type of a stress test called a persantine thallium due to the caffeine. For a regular stress thallium test, coffee could accelerate the heart rate before the test which may affect the results. It's unlikely that eating or coffee will cause a false positive or false negative test. Thus, you should avoid coffee for 24 hrs. before a stress test and you should not eat the morning of the stress test.
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies. Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
In Reply to: thallium stress test posted by james m. on December 09, 1998 at 19:49:27:
would eating breakfast and drinking coffee before a thallium stress test be more likley to give a false positive (make the dr. think something is wrong even though it isn't)or a false negative (make dr. think nothing is wrong even though something is).
_
Dear James, thank you for your question. You should not eat before a stress test because you may develop nausea during the test and your stomach needs to be empty since you could vomit. Caffeine will interfere with a certain type of a stress test called a persantine thallium due to the caffeine. For a regular stress thallium test, coffee could accelerate the heart rate before the test which may affect the results. It's unlikely that eating or coffee will cause a false positive or false negative test. Thus, you should avoid coffee for 24 hrs. before a stress test and you should not eat the morning of the stress test.
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies. Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
