Calcium scoring same time nuclear test ?

[tostaky]

Hi,

I've done a sestamibi test and I,ll be back in 2 days to do the same thing under stress. In know the the purpos eis to see if ther's major blockage in my corononary flow. After the first part of the test (2 square things turning slowly around me) they let me on the same table but put me in a cylinder (in which something is moving fast) and ask me to hold my breath 2 or 3 times.

I now see that something like calcium scoring is obtain by scanning the heart could they have done this at the same time ? It seems that calcium scoring is better to predic coronary disease.

Thanks !

[erijon]

A nuclear stress test has a specificity of 97% which means it will identify heart disease 7% of the time. The overall accuracy is 85%, the only test that is more accurate is an angiogram.

They should have taken two sets of pics, one with your heart at rest and one after it was stressed at the end of you test. They compare the two to see if there are areas of your heart not getting blood flow at stress.

[Occupant]

To me a nuclear scan is actually very useful in contrast to a CT-scan which is actually pretty useless other than scaring the crap out of you - at least in my case with an Agatston score of 1243 - because you'll have to do the other tests afterwards anyway. The Nuclear scan will show: the size of the heart chambers, how effectively the heart pumps (ventricular function), how well the coronary arteries supply the heart with blood (myocardial perfusion), if there is damage or scarring of the heart muscle from previous heart attacks.

[tostaky]

Ok thanks for that answer. Do you have any idea what are the image they have taken at the end of the test ? I know it was written spect-ct on the machine ( mad by Siemens ! ).

I,ve read that nuclear test us not very usefull anyways which leads me to ask why they do it.

[erijon]

No, a calcium scoring test is done with computerized tomography and is not nearly as accurate as nuclear imaging. It is not considered useful if you are low risk or very high risk for heart disease. Nuclear imaging is preferred in most cases.