Medication or dye induced stress test?

[LUVMyBirman]

Wondering if anyone has info on this type of stress test. (I am ok, test is for a relative in the hospital). He can't walk on a treadmill do to another disease. So they will induce the heart with some sort of medication to "stress it out" . Sounds scary. Very concerened.

TY

 

[tobagotwo]

There are acouple of medications they can do this with. Dobutamine (sp?) is one of them. It avoids most of the concerns about exhaustion.

There are some previous threads that discuss this. Click on Search, then Advanced, then put dobutamine in for the search.

Best wishes,

 

[Blanche]

Gina:
I fell off the treadmill so many times that the folks at the gym banned me from the darn thing!

I had the same test you describe and was scared spitless at first. But, when all was said and done, more was said than done. It was nothing at all for me. Albert stayed with me and joked with all the x-ray techs as they were working on me. Our cardiologist came by and stayed to talk with Al, who is also his patient. I even shared a recipe for liver with one of the techs. They even gave me a lollypop when I left.

Perhaps someone can be with your relative while the test is being performed. I'm sure that my positive experience had a great deal to do with the fact that there were familiar people with me during the procedure.

Kind regards,
Blanche

 

[Meghan]

My husband had a dobutamine echo this past summer to test his mitral valve function under stress. He said it was quite strange to be laying still and feel your heart racing, be sweating as if you were exercising, and he was a bit worn out afterwards, but it wasn't bad.

Meghan

 

[hensylee]

it must be a persantine test. I have had two of them. You go in perform certain things while you are on an exam table, then they lay you down oin another room, inject some stuff, run the xray machine over your body while it is stressed by the medicine. As it wears off -they bring it down- they make more pictures and it's done. There are two people with you at all times checking you for any discomfort while the test is run. Your relative can drive to/fro the hospital. It's easy and very little discomfort as in feeling a fullness in the body but it isn't real pain. When it's over, it's over and I got results immediately. I can't get on a stress machine either.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

TY everyone for responding.

It does not sound too bad. He's actually in the hospital at the moment. They will take him down in the AM for the test. He is very nervous because of the underlining condition (Parkinsons). His regular meds keep him so doped up it's really sad. Maybe they will get him @ a sleepy moment so it's not too stressful.

Thanks again

 

[Ross]

I hope he does alright. Some people have a reaction to the drug and I was one of those. I could not breath about 10 minutes after the test. Hopefully, this won't happen to him.

 

[imhayley]

piece o cake!

piece o cake!

I had a perfusion scan some 3 weeks ago without using the treadmill and instead being injected with a med that makes it as though you are excersising. I only experienced a little light headedness and got a bit scared but other than that I did real well and I was so scared and thought the worst before having the test. The boring part is when I had to just lie still and wait for the camera to take the pic of the heart. The only pain I felt was the day I opened the BILL!! Hope all goes well too!