mild inferoapical ischemia

[Frankie622]

I've recently gone through a nuclear stress test that demonstrated a mild intensity inferior apical defect and was diagnosed with mild inferoapical ischemia. Please explain what all these mean and the operation involved.
Thanks.
Frankie

[kenkeith]

Thanks for your response.  Did the medication relieve your chest discomfort?  Your cardiologist made the correct call based on the information you posted.  The result of the stress test for you looks good....almost everyone has some plaque in their coronary arteries

[ed34]

If anyone is due a nuclear perfusion scan, here is a picture of the scanner typically used for the heart. The L shaped gamma camera arcs across the chest area very slowly, usually taking 20-30 minutes.

http://www.sierraheart.com/Nuclear%20Camera/Nuclear%20Camera%20-%20resized%20for%20website.jpg

This site has some example scans, if you click findings at the bottom, it shows the diagnosis from the scans

http://www.dhmc.org/webpage.cfm?site_id=2&org_id=72&morg_id=0&sec_id=0&gsec_id=1508&item_id=21139

[Frankie622]

Thanks to all of you who have so kindly responded to my questions. I feel a lot better now. Well, it was my family doctor who advised me to check into the emergency after my complaint of tightness at the chest (she called it chest pain). There I was found to have irregular heartbeat and was given medication and hospitalized overnight. At first, they recommended an angiogram right away. But, the cardiologist I was referred to didn't agree to what he called so invasive a procedure at this stage, and he arranged for me to take the nuclear stress test first. And that's the report I got from my family doctor last week. Actually, I'm scheduled to go back to see the cardiologist again next week. I just wanted to find out a bit more about the terms and so on. Thank you again for all your help. It has be very helpful.

Frankie622

[kenkeith]

QUOTE: "I've recently gone through a nuclear stress test that demonstrated a mild intensity inferior apical defect and was diagnosed with mild inferoapical ischemia. Please explain what all these mean and the operation involved."

I'm not sure were Jon is going with his question, but a little medical history would be helpful, such as your symptoms...chest pains, shortness of breath, fatique, etc.

I have to assume the nuclear stress test was to measure the blood flow to your heart muscle both at rest and during stress on the heart. It provides images that can show areas of low blood flow through the heart and areas of damaged heart muscle.

A nuclear stress test usually involves taking two sets of images of your heart — one set during an exercise stress test while you're exercising on a treadmill or stationary bike, or with medication that stresses your heart, and another while you're at rest. A nuclear stress test is used to gather information about how well your heart works during physical activity and at rest.

The results of the test were a mild defect with heart surface location.  There are different words for vessel blockage: lesion, occlusion, defect...mild would indicate blockage less than 70%, however, a defective vessel can have other meanings such as twisted, an anomoly, etc.

As Jon states if symptoms (?) can be controlled with medication, you may want to forego stent implants. That is in keeping with protocol guidelines by AMA.  

[erijon]

The word defect could mean many different things. If it is reversible and the blockage is greater than 70% then they will treat it with either a stent or in the worse case scenario a bypass. But that's getting way ahead of yourself. If the defect is not reversible then there is not much of a surgical option. Also, if it's caused by a blockage less than 70% and does not cause any symptoms it will most likely be treated with meds alone.

Again, an angiogram will be the key to deciding what the treatment will be. If a stent is require it will most likely be inserted during the angiogram.

Can I ask why you had the nuclear stress test in the first place? Were you having CAD related symptoms?

Hope this helps,

Jon

[ed34]

An angiogram is not really invasive, it's just passing a catheter wire up through your arteries to the heart, shooting out some dye and looking at the live x-rays on the monitor about you. About 2 hours after the procedure you will be on your way home.
I've had six now and still here :)

[Frankie622]

Thanks. This is the key info written by the cardiologist in the report. I'm scheduled to see him later this month. I'm just worried about the angiogram he might prescribe. I heard it's quite an invasive procedure. I wonder if medication would be enough. And the other thing I query is would the the word 'defect' mean that an operation is necessary.

Frankie622

[erijon]

Hard to say what all is involved, did the report say anything about being "reversible"? Usually with this result, I would think the next step would be an angiogram to see if any blockages do exist and how severe they are. Treatment would then range from meds, to stents to bypass.

Was there anything written up as a summary or result? Did you get referred to a Cardiologist?

Jon