Hi
I am having a stress test with thallium next week and i am worried about the test.
Can someone please tell me what i should expect? Has anyone had a reaction to the thallium?
I once had a cat scan with Iodine contrast and i found out the hard way that I am allergic to iodine.
The doctor knows my problem with iodine, but i just wanted some feed back here.
Ca46

No prob. The thallium is a radioactive tag that is like sodium (a normal salt ion in your blood), has NOTHING to do with iodine, and is a pretty benign test. If you have and EXERCISE thallium you have to do a treadmill test, and a peak exertion, are injected with the thallium, then images are acquired near peak exertion and again several hours later (the rest images). Stress and rest images are compared.

If you have a DOBUTAMINE Thallium test, instead of exercising on a treadmill, a drug called dobutamine is infused through the IV first to raise the heart rate (like exercise) then thallium injected and the process is like the above stress thallium.

If you have an ADENOSINE thallium, it does pretty much what THALLIUM does - but is preferred in patients with LBBB (left bundle branch block - an unusual finding on your EKG)... Oh enough of the technical stuff.

It really ain't too bad once you get past the necessary IV at the start....

Good luck,

Boombox58 :wave:

Thanks boombox 58.......as far as i know i am having a Adeniscan.......that is what is checked off on my paper.
Thanks again for the infor......I guess I can relax now, there are worse things in the world.
Ca46

Ca,

Why are they opting for the drug induced stress (adenosine) instead of the regular treadmill variant. Would you have trouble with a fast treadmill workout?

Lenin
I have a knee problem........wasn't really given a choice. I think i would be able to walk on the tread mill, but i don't know for how long.
I do not like to take meds.....its a concern to me. Fiday is coming fast, and I am getting nervous again.
Ca