It is absolutely necessary to avoid all caffeinated items for the entire day prior to your test and the day of your test. These include coffee and tea (including decaf), caffeinated sodas, chocolate, cocoa and certain pain medications that contain caffeine, such as Excedrine, Anacin, Midol, Fiorinal, etc.
Your doctor will ask you to refrain from eating or drinking for two to four hours prior to the test. This is to reduce the likelihood that you'll experience nausea during the test.
Typically, the following drugs may be stopped before a nuclear stress test, however, be sure to ask your doctor before stopping these drugs and follow his / her instructions: Beta Blockers: Lopressor, metoprolol, Toprol XL, atenolol, Inderal, propranolol. Isosorbide mononitrate (Imdur, ISMO), dinitrate (Isordil)
Hypertensive response to exercise (defined as peak systolic blood pressure >210 mmHg in men and >190 mmHg in women) is considered to be one of the reasons for false-positive stress echocardiography.
The common reasons for false-negative exercise MPI are reported to be inadequate exercise, a lower dose of radio-tracer, small area of perfusion defect, and ischemia caused by left circumflex or its branches. Balanced ischemia is one of the rare causes of false-negative MPI.
If you are unable to exercise on the treadmill, a medication will be administered to stress your heart. If you are undergoing this type of an exam, you may take all your heart and blood pressure medications as instructed by your physician.
You are allowed to take your prescribed medications, including blood pressure medications, the morning of the test with small amounts of water or juice, unless otherwise instructed by your physician. If you are diabetic, DO NOT take your diabetic medications.
A cardiac stress test can reveal blockages in your arteries through the various types of information it collects. If your blood oxygen level is below normal, the test reveals that your blood flow is partially blocked.
How Long Does a Stress Test Take? While the exercise stress test itself usually takes around 10 or 15 minutes, part one of the test takes about 30 or 45 minutes total.
People usually can go back to normal activities immediately. You may want to drink plenty of fluids to help flush the tracer out of your body. After the test, you may feel tired or dizzy or have a headache. Those symptoms should go away with time and rest.
Yes, a light breakfast is allowed with all types of Stress Tests (Nuclear, Stress Echo and regular Stress Tests). There is a caffeine restriction for 24 hours only with a Nuclear Stress Test.
It's important that you not consume any caffeine for a full 24-hour period prior to your appointment. This includes coffee, decaffeinated coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, and certain migraine medications that contain caffeine. Caffeine can inhibit the medication needed for the stress portion of the test to be effective.
To help you stay calm and confident right before and during the test, perform relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, relaxing your muscles one at a time, or closing your eyes and imagining a positive outcome. Don't forget to eat and drink. Your brain needs fuel to function.
Your throat is sprayed and will be numb. A mild sedative is given and you may sleep through this test. Your doctor will gently put a small, flexible, lubricated tube into your mouth and down your esophagus (swallowing pipe). You'll be able to breathe normally.
You will be asked to live very still on the examining table while a camera (called a gamma camera) takes pictures of your heart. EXCEPT: blood thinners (i.e. Warfarin/Xarelto), diuretics (water pills), inhalers, anxiety medication and diabetic medications.
Dipyridamole, the only agent with approved labeling for use in stress testing, inhibits adenosine indirectly. Dobutamine increases cardiac output and heart rate as well as promoting coronary artery vasodilation.
State and trait anxiety are more common in younger women compared to men, and high anxiety levels could affect hemodynamic reactivity during cardiac stress testing.
For a nuclear stress test, the false positive rate is about 10%—so, for every 10 tests that come back abnormal, 1 of those patients don't actually have a significant coronary blockage. There are several reasons for this. First, a nuclear stress test is a perfusion study, not a look at the coronary arteries.
Bottom line: In a study where every patient gets the same gold standard, the accuracy of stress test is poor, with sensitivity and specificity both less than 80%. This is a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at all types of perfusion imaging.
Additionally, some manifestations of anxiety disorders can lead to abnormal ECG readings. When false positives occur for rhythm irregularities or other concerns, preexisting anxiety or even test-invoked nervousness may be factors.