A 34-year-old member asked:
what is rest stress thallium test?
2 doctor answers • 4 doctors weighed in
Dr. Sherin Ibrahim Howett answered
Sleep Medicine 18 years experience
Heart Disease Test: Thallium stress test is a nuclear imaging method that shows how well blood flows into the heart muscle, both at rest and during activity. Normal blood flow would "light up" on images. The stress portion is either through exercise, like on a treadmill, or a drug can be injected for those who can't tolerate regular exercise. This causes the heart to behave as if the subject were exercising.
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Dr. Calvin Weisberger answered
Cardiology 51 years experience
Thallium: We use thallium as a myocardial tracer to show parts of the heart that don't get enough blood flow with exercise. We do an exercise test to a target heart rate, symptoms or ECG change and inject thallium and immediately image. A few hours later we reimage because thallium redistributes. It shows scar or reversible ischemia in the heart muscle. We've been doing the test since the late 1970's.
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Last updated Jul 13, 2017
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