HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Had my first chemical stress test today

Support Forums
>
Heart & Cardiovascular Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 10/19/2012 2:26 AM (GMT 0)
I had my first chemical stress test today. the results won't be in for a couple days. the tech gave no hints. actually it was pretty easy for me except for the first rush of the drugs making me feel like i was going to sleep forever. my target in the machine was i think 155 or 158, somewhere in there. my heart rate never went over 135 and the last bp i saw was 120/80. my heart rate is normally from the high 90's up into the low 100's below 110. my question is about not reaching the target heart rate. could this be good or bad? does anybody know?
Posted 10/19/2012 1:10 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there,

Welcome to the heart forum. I don't know much of what you are discussing, but wanted to welcome you.

Hope you feel better soon.

Hugs, Karen
Posted 10/19/2012 1:26 PM (GMT 0)
thank you, Karen. for those that don't know, a regular heart stress test is done by injecting a dye, jogging on a treadmill, and taking ct scan type pictures of the blood going thru the coronary arteries before and after the jog. they have a fairly new procedure now where instead of getting on a treadmill, they inject you with a vaso-dilator to open the arteries and let the heart pump as if you were jogging, to get the same results. the idea behind both tests is to get you up to a target heart rate and see what happens and if there are suspected blockages.
Posted 10/19/2012 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome, Bill. I'm a visitor to this forum, but post more regularly on several of the other pages here at HealingWell.

I had a stress test with meds about two months ago; my first time. In my case, the meds made me feel like my heart was going to come through my chest like the critter in Alien! My heart rate is normally around 60, my target was 132. They weren't able to get mine to the target either; I thought it was because I regularly work out and get it that high with exercise (had the chemical test because I can't walk on the treadmill.) I ended up doing side leg lifts on the table until my heart rate got high enough.

At any rate, my heart was completely normal despite this. I have to think the problem getting the heart rate up was a positive sign, at least in my case. Hope the same holds true for you.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply