PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shannon M. Hammons
TI  - Let’s Get Physical: Myocardial Stress Tests—A Student’s Perspective
AID  - 10.2967/jnmt.120.244947
DP  - 2020 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
PG  - 136--138
VI  - 48
IP  - 2
4099  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/48/2/136.short
4100  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/48/2/136.full
SO  - J. Nucl. Med. Technol.2020 Jun 01; 48
AB  - Myocardial perfusion imaging is a routine study that helps determine whether blood flow to the heart muscle is normal or abnormal. There are 3 parts to myocardial imaging: a resting scan with a radioactive tracer, stressing of the myocardium, and a stress scan with a radioactive tracer. For the resting scan, a radioactive tracer is injected into the patient to obtain a set of images of the myocardium at rest. After the resting scan comes stressing of the myocardium. There are 2 different ways to stress the myocardium. The first is to have the patient exercise on a treadmill following a specific exercise protocol, and the second is to use a pharmacologic stressing agent if the patient cannot exercise. Pharmacologic stressing agents produce coronary artery vasodilation and increased myocardial blood flow. During exercise stress, the heart rate should preferably reach 85% of the maximum heart rate and the patient should be symptomatic or fatigued. The technologist injects the patient with the radioactive tracer at peak stress and then obtains a second set of images. Of the 2 different ways to stress the myocardium, physical stress is preferred to pharmacologic stress.