Nuclear Med Stress Test

[Dee174]

Hello everyone. I am a 23 year old male and have been having palpitations( NO skipped beats I am just almost always aware of my heart beat and sometimes get one really big beat in my chest and throat) and random chest pains for about 5 months now. I have gotten an ekg and chest xray done as well as your standard blood work and everything has came back with good news. No signs of heart problems or cholesterol. Now my Doctor thinks that it's all from anxiety but he want's to be sure so he ordered a nuclear Med stress test. I have looked it up online and found out that the medicine/dye they put into to you to better see the heart is somewhat radioactive. Supposedely safe (about only 40% of the safe amount for a human being or basically the same as many xrays) but I'm a bit aprehensive about putting ANYTHING radioactive in my blood stream. I am having thoughts about just telling them to give me the holter monitor and cancel the stress test. I was wondering if anyone out there who has gotten one of these stress tests or knows about them could inform me about the risks about the nuclear medicine because I personally do not know any one who's had one. Thank you.

[Dee174]

Thank ya'll so much for the answers, they have given me confidence and a calm mind.

[kevk]

I also have had many of these with no ill effects from the test, Test took 3-4 hours.

[Jerry_NJ]

I've had three over the last 6 years, and one a few years before that when the test was called a thallium stress test...it is nuclear too, but it seems thallium is no longer used.

I have no known side-effects and I have gotten two false positives.  The latest one that gave this was about 2 years ago, and so I underwent a catheter study and there were no blocks.

I think the bottom line is, if the nuclear stress test says you do not have blockage, you most likely don't.  That is, the test is too "sensitive", better than missing something, however, I think.

I have no reservations about taking a nuclear stress test.

[SooZeeATL]

Dee - I had one two years ago and it was no big deal. It takes some time, but is not uncomfortable at all. It took forever for my heart rate to get into the "zone" they were looking for and it was pretty funny because one person was hanging on one arm with a BP monitor and the other arm had someone shooting the meds into my IV all the while I'm running with the wires going everywhere.

I will warn you though that I got a false positive from this test that showed two blocked arteries. I was back in the doctor's office the next morning picking out a stent for my heart cath the next day and having a panic attack. I'm extremely healthy, in great shape, eat right, and I was too young (48) for heart blockage. My husband and I were terrified.

Long story short, the heart cath came back clean and no blockages. So don't worry and take the test. Just be aware that there are false positive results for some people and don't worry until you get the real results.