Question:
my mother has to have a nuclear cardiac endurance test to be cleared for surgery.

my mother is 49 and is required to have a nuclear cardiac endurance test to be cleared for surgery. this is where you lay there and they inject you with something that makes your heart race and think its running on a treadmill. has anyone else had to have this test? how horrible was it?    — christina K. (posted on November 15, 2002)

November 14, 2002
I had it - did fine. No problem. I had the test a few weeks ago and it was unrelated to WLS but I hope they'll use my test results to clear me as a go for surgery. She'll do fine - don't worry. :-)
   — Debra L. H.

November 14, 2002
I believe what you are describing is a Persantine Thallium Treadmill. I have not had one yet (will be soon) but my mother did and she did fine. It is for people who cannot physically walk/run on the treadmill fast enough to get your heartrate up to where they need it to be. A treadmill is to test how your heart, blood pressure, etc reacts to stress and increased activity. Alot of people have this done (I worked at hospital on a cardiac floor for 16 years).
   — Kelly B.

November 14, 2002
I've had this done a couple of times. Once after contracting bacterial endocarditis and once before my surgery. Piece of cake! Like Donna said, the hardest part was walking the treadmill!!!!!
   — Rosario T.

November 15, 2002
I had the sestamibi stress echo on nov. 5. It was a bit uncomfortable but provides a lot of info to the docs. The insert an IV and do the test in 3 parts. Part 1, they inject a short lived radioactive isotope then place the geiger counter scanners over you and rotate their position for about 15 minutes. Part 2, you lie on a gurney and when the cardiologist arrives the start a med (commonly Adenosine) thru your IV. the med dialates your arteries and makes you feel really strange. It can feel almost normal to flushed and sweaty to chest pain and shortness of breath, but it only lasts until they turn off the IV med (about 5 minutes). The tech that did my test said that everyone is different and healthy hearts or sick hearts can both have hideous pain or none and neither meant anything until the results. Once they have your arteries dialated they inject more isotope so it fully permeates the coronary arteries. After about an hour, you return for part three. You repeat the scans for about 15 minutes then flip over onto your belly for another 10 or so. The test isn't too bad and the icky part doesn't take more than 5 minutes. The entire time you have an IV, EKG leads, and supervision in a hospital. Where I had mine done is a smallish 120 bed hospital, but they average at least 60 tests per month. The day I had mine, I was 1 of 3. Good luck and no treadmill required like other stress echos that use ultrasound instead of nuclear medicine. Not bad at all.
   — Cheryl W.