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Our heart has four chambers namely right atrium and ventricle & left atrium and ventricles and has a rich blood supply, which comes from the right and left coronary arteries. When coming on systemic circulation it starts with the pumping of blood from the left ventricle into the largest artery known as the Aorta. From the aorta, it circulates to the other parts of the body. Any disturbance in the circulation of blood from arteries of heart leads to serious diseases like myocardial infarction, ischemia heart diseases, and coronary diseases. To know the disease there are many investigations are advised.
The nuclear stress test is one of the tests which helps to detect the blockage of the arteries. This test is done with the use of a radioactive agent which is injected in the arm to know the flow of blood. This test shows the two images of your heart, first during at rest and second during at exertion. To know your heart whether it is at the risk of disease, this test will help to know the function of the heart. To come upon the accuracy of this test, its accuracy is more than other investigation but still, it depends upon the way the radioactive agent is injected. But if the abnormal nuclear stress tests result is present, the reasons for it are described below in the article.
The main purpose for performing this test is to identity the blockage of the coronary arteries. This test show the blood supply to the heart muscles when the patient is in stressed by doing exercise and stressed which is induced by giving medication and to know that which part of the heart muscle is getting low blood supply. This is done by injecting radioactive agent when it reaches to the heart and pumped to the muscles of the heart through coronary arteries.
To know whether nuclear stress test is how much relevant so that one can go with the test, for it one should have a thorough knowledge of this test, its use, procedure, its results with interpretations and with its risk factors. This will give you knowledge regarding the questions which arise in the mind that does a nuclear stress test shows blocked arteries?
The nuclear stress test is done to get an image of the function of the heart by the use of a radioactive agent called as radionuclide which is injected. This test is done in both rests as well as activity time to know the flow of blood to the heart muscles. This test is also known as Myocardial Perfusion Scan.
There are two type of nuclear stress test is done
This test is done to know that which area of the heart muscles is getting decreased blood supply during an exercise. This test is done by injecting the radioactive agent from the arm or hand into the veins while the patient in a rest, from which this radioactive agent get circulated in the blood and goes to the heart and from heart it goes to the muscles of the heart. To getting the image a special machine called gamma camera is used which takes the image of the heart while the patient is in the rest (lies on the table). This scanning of the heart for getting the images last for 15-20 minutes. This phase of the test is called as Rest Scan. Arteries which are blocked or any area which is getting insufficient blood supply will have appeared on the scan as a cold spot or defects because that part of the heart muscles will not able to absorb the radioactive agent.
This test is done for those patients who are physically not fit to run on the treadmills due to any physical or medical conditions. In this method, the medicine is given to the patient by which it either dilates the coronary arteries or increases the heart rate. This medicine produces the phase which is equal to the phase which is produced due to exercise. Rest of the procedure is the same for getting the image of the heart by injecting radioactive agent. But here the next dose of radioactive agent is given to the patient when the stress is at peak level.
There are a few points which every patient should know before he/she is going for the test. These are as follows
This test can be performed at any medical centers or hospitals. This procedure is done under the patient’s medical conditions and the physician’s experience and practice. The following steps are to be followed for the test
For injecting radioactive agent for this procedure mostly thallium or technetium radionuclide are used.
The result of this test depends on the following factors. These are
With proper management, the result is mostly accurate so that one can easily believe in the test. But the patient show should have adequate blood in the body so that the radioactive agent can be easily circulated in the heart muscles and shows the blocked arteries so that one will not get abnormal nuclear stress test results.
Generally, it is safe, but few people can be at risk if there is any medical condition present. But these conditions are rarely presented.
After going through this article for those people who think that does nuclear stress test can show blocked arteries, hopefully, they get the full knowledge about the test. If still, they found abnormal nuclear stress test results than one should consult the doctor to know the cause of abnormal results, as mostly doctor prefer to go with this test because this nuclear stress test accuracy is more than any other investigations.