PET Cardiac Stress Test with Rb-82

Kane axes, originally uploaded by larkinkane.

Here is a screen shot from a volunteer PET cardiac exam I did this last week. It involved laying inside a camera while being infused with a vasodilator called dipyridamole that has some uncomfortable (but rarely fatal) side-effects.

I don't recommend it.

But whatever the side-effects, the research director said I'm not going to die from cardiac failure anytime soon. In fact I've got a pretty healthy cardiac reserve flow.

What they show are comparative sets of blood perfusion images between rest and stress (dipyridamole) conditions.

BTW, the doc assured me that is not an apical defect--as it kinda looks like.