Stress Test Question

Georgiagrama · ‎03-19-2010

Has anyone had one lately? How long did it take and is there an IV involved?

Kathlen · ‎03-09-2010

I had a stress test and echocardiogram. Total about 30 minutes procedure - about an hour all together with prep and consult afterwards.

Georgiagrama · ‎03-19-2010

On 3/5/2014 Kathleen said:
I had a stress test and echocardiogram. Total about 30 minutes procedure - about an hour all together with prep and consult afterwards.

Thank you Kathleen. I have very small, hard to find veins and I am horrified with any procedure that I may need one of those "ports". I feel more at ease now.

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

There are two ways to do a stress test. One is for the patient to run on a treadmill while all hooked up to machines that will nmonitor heart and respirations. The other way is to hook up the monitoring equipment then the patient lies on a stretcher and gets an injection IV of a medication that will stress the heart that way so it can be monitored. Generally doctors prefer the results from the one using the treadmill but sometimes patients can't do that for a number of reasons. Then after you have that part of the test you can leave for a while but have to return for a second part a while later - just them putting you back on the monitor to look at the resting heart after it was stressed.

cater · ‎03-10-2010

I had the stress test like the one Happy Housewife is talking about Let me be honest I thought I was going to have a nervous break down I was so worked up. Happened to go over to the Cancer thread and a poster had just had it done were you don't have to do treadmill. She said how they did it exactly the way HH is telling you and she ended with saying not to be afraid it easy peachy. She totally put my mind at ease and I went and had it done and was not afraid. To this day I am very grate full to that poster. I went in at 7am. and was done by 12noon. I could not do the treadmill because I have a lot of problems with my legs.

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

There are many types of ""stress tests"" and I have had many different protocols since my first one in 1982. Depends on what the doctor orders and what exactly he wants to see in the results.

If the doctor is looking a the inner heart they usually do a ""contrasting stress test with Echo-cardiogram both before and right after the end of the test"". If you cannot do the physical type of stress test there are a few that the doctor can order where one does not have to exercise in any way. One of them is a Nuclear Test where some material is injected into an IV and then sometimes read with and Echo-Cardio or could be done with a Nuclear CAT type of scan.

They have different names for them and some are the names of doctors that set up the Protocol for a specific test. One is the Balke Protocol and another is the Bruce Protocol. I've done both of these and also modified versions of both of them. One of them is done more with ""athletic individuals"" as it involves running all but the first 2 warmup minutes. Warmup 2 minutes walking and the rest is running. The comes a cool down walk and many Cardiologist want you to walk until your heart rate reaches a specific number of ""beats per minute"" and this is usually based on what your resting heart rate was before starting the test.

Got any specific questions throw them my way and I will try to answer them. I've had stress tests which involved being hooked up to Pulmonary equipment to measure oxygen intake and carbon dioxide elimination. This tells more about physical fitness than just a regular check of the heart and it's arteries and/or valves.

hckynut(john)

sylviahomeatlast · ‎03-11-2010

last year I had a nuclear stress test -----arduous

violann · ‎03-10-2010

On 3/6/2014 sylviahomeatlast said: last year I had a nuclear stress test -----arduous

I'm so sorry you had a tough time with it. I had one about 4 years ago and didn't think it was too bad. The wait time was kind of annoying for me. Hope everyone passes his or her test with flying colors!

hckynut · ‎03-10-2010

On 3/6/2014 sylviahomeatlast said: last year I had a nuclear stress test -----arduous

I have had the Nuclear Test twice and this was when I was suffering from Anemia and could not do any of the exercising stress tests. That was far and away the easiest one I've had of any of them. No effort whatsoever and certainly no aching muscles since all I had to do was lie there on different tables.

Don't know what was arduous(definition:taxing to the utmost/testing powers of endurance)as the most difficult thing I did was climb onto the couple of different tables to lie down. Unless there is a Nuclear Test for the reasons of this thread that I am unaware of, I have no idea what was arduous for you and I am quite curious as to exactly what it might have been.

hckynut(john)

redbird · ‎03-24-2010

My husband had a nuclear stress test a couple of weeks ago. It took about 4 hours, much of which was waiting time between parts of the test. An IV was inserted in his hand and he was given the chemical substance. The test consisted of 2 sets of MRIs with a treadmill stress test in between. If you are having the nuclear test you will know as there is a page of instructions regarding fasting, meds, etc to be followed prior to the test.