Nuclear stress test?
A nuclear stress test can be perfomed 2 different ways. On a treadmill or with medication to chemically induce stress. Dye is not used in either test. A radioisotope is used for the images, and I’d speak with the nuclear stress lab regarding possible allergies, but I’ve never seen anyone have a reaction to the isotope in 4 years of supervising these tests. A treadmill nuclear test, you have an IV started, get the isotope injected and have pictures made for your rest images. Then you walk on a treadmill until you reach your target heart rate, the isotope is then injected again, you walk (or run) another minute and then they take another set of pictures. The cardiologist I work for prefers this type of test to the chemical test because he feels it is a more accurate test. In a chemical test, an IV is started, you are injected with the isotope, have your rest pictures taken just like in the other test. The difference is, instead of walking on the treadmill you are given a medication to ch
