Stress

          Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Heart disease includes heart failure, coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmias, heart attack, and angina. The most common symptoms of heart disease are nausea, breaking out in a cold sweat, shortness of breath, pain or discomfort in the center of the chest, feeling faint or woozy, and pain in the arms, back, neck, jaw or stomach. When one or more of these symptoms occur your doctor may order a cardiac nuclear medicine stress test.

          A cardiac nuclear medicine stress test produces an image of the heart with an intravenous injection of a radioactive "tracers" such as Thallium and Cardiolyte. Nuclear scanning of the heart shows how well blood flows to the heart muscle. This is done in conjunction with walking on a treadmill, but can also be performed using a chemical called Lexiscan that simulates the effects of exercise on the heart. Cardiac nuclear stress imaging helps determine whether coronary artery stenoses (blockages) are so severe as to limit blood flow to heart muscle during physical activity and allows a determination of the heart’s pumping function (ejection fraction). This is a fairly easy and accurate way to determine acute or chronic heart disease.