How is a Nuclear Stress Test Performed?
Several small electrodes are placed on the patient’s chest which are then connected to a machine known as an electrocardiograph that monitors the heart’s electrical activity.
The nuclear stress test is a fairly straight forward test that is become more and more common due to it’s accuracy over other cardiac stress testing that can be done. The nuclear stress test allows the doctor to see how well your heart and the heart muscles are working so that blood flow is adequate to the entire heart. It is the only test that is noninvasive to see if there are any clogged or narrowing arteries. The nuclear stress test is performed in two parts. There is a resting portion and a stress portion. These are done back to back so that your doctor can see how the blood flows around the heart at rest and after it has undergone stress. It is possible for the blood flow to be normal at rest and less then adequate after stress, or vice versa. The resting portion of the test is when there is radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream so that it mixes with the blood to go to the heart so that pictures can be taken by the scanning machine. Usually your pictures are taken 2
