Stress Portion
The stress portion of your exam will take place in the Special Procedures cardiac lab.  The cardiac technician will explain the treadmill portion of the procedure prior to starting the exam.  An intravenous (IV) line will be placed preferably in your left arm. 

The cardiac technician will hook you up to their EKG equipment for monitoring during the treadmill exam.  You will be exercised under appropriate monitoring conditions while your physician or a cardiologist assesses your progress. 

Close to the end of your exercise, you will be given a radiopharmacetical reagent through your IV line.  After stabilization you will have about 30-60 minutes of free time, before images of your heart will be acquired.  You may eat or drink during this interval.

Your heart images will be acquired with you lying flat on our scanning bed with our cameras rotating around your chest area.  These images will take about 15 – 30 minutes.

Rest Portion
The rest portion will involve you coming straight to the Nuclear Medicine department, receiving an IV injection of the same radiopharmaceutical with the same free time of 30 – 60 minutes before the imaging. 

Rest images are acquired exactly the same as the stress images.

If you have any technical questions specific to this procedure, please don’t hesitate to ask the technologist at dosing time.  All clinical questions should be directed to your physician.

A report will be sent to your ordering physician.