Stress imaging test

The incidence of major adverse reactions to dipyridamole was determined in a multicenter retrospective study, involving 73 806 patients who underwent intravenous dipjridamole stress imaging in 59 hospitals and 19 countries (4). The main conclusion was that the risk of serious dipjridamole-induced adverse effects is very low, a conclusion that is in line with other reports (5), and comparable to that reported for exercise testing in a similar patient population. Combined major adverse events among the entire patient population included 7 cardiac deaths (0.95 per 10000), 13 non-fatal myocardial infarctions (1.76 per 10000), 6 non-fatal sustained ventricular dysrhythmias (0.81 per 10000) (ventricular tachycardia in 2 and ventricular fibrillation in 4), 9 transient cerebral ischemic attacks (1.22 per 10000), 1 stroke, and 9 severe cases of bronch-ospasm (1.22 per 10000). Minor non-cardiac adverse effects were less frequent among the elderly and more frequent in women and patients taking maintenance aspirin. 

Most commonly, this recommendatloh Is for stress Imaging (MPS, echocardiography. MRI). In some patients and centers, coronary OTA Is the recommended additional test. 

Figure 1. Schematic and image of gradient stress relaxation test fame set-up.

During a stress test, thallium-201 is injected into the patient s bloodstream to determine if his or her heart is working properly. IMAGE COPYRIGHT 2009, MONKEY BUSINESS IMAGES. USED UNDER LICENSE FROM SHUTTERSTOCK.COM. 

For years, doctors have used a variety of devices, such as X-ray imaging, to get a view inside a person s body. Nuclear reactions have enabled them to get a much more detailed view of the body. For example, doctors can take a close look at a person s heart by using a thallium stress test. The person is given an intravenous injection of thallium-201, which acts chemically like calcium and collects in the heart muscle. As the thallium-201 decays, low-energy gamma rays are emitted and are detected by a special camera that produces images, such as the one shown in Figure 19. 

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