Patients are required to abstain from any foods, drinks or medications which contain caffeine or theophylline, for 24 hours prior to the Dipyridamole-Thallium Scan. Rather than exercise stress, the heart is stressed by the injection of Dipyridamole into a vein, so-called pharmacologic stress. A radio-isotope (radiotracer) such as Thallium is then injected into a vein via an intravenous cannula. This substance is taken up by heart muscle according to the amount of blood supply to that area of heart muscle, and shows up on an image as a “concentration map”. Sometimes additional images are taken when the heart is not being stressed, these can then be compared to the stressed images to see if there is an area of “reversible ischaemia”. This may help to differentiate coronary artery disease from areas of permanently damaged heart muscle, as with a heart attack (myocardial infarction).
A Dipyridamole-Thallium Scan (Dip-Thall) may be requested by a General Practitioner (GP), Emergency Physician or Cardiologist, in cases of chest pain where the cause is not certain. It therefore has similar use to an Exercise Stress Test, the advantage being that the patient is not required to exercise for a Dipyridamole-Thallium Scan, which may be useful in people with severe arthritis or lung disease who are not able to reach a high level of exercise. Symptoms of shortness of breath on exertion, waking up in the night with severe breathing difficulty (paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnoea or PND), or ankle swelling may all be due to heart failure, where the heart’s ability to pump is impaired. Heart failure (left ventricular failure = LVF, congestive cardiac failure = CCF) is sometimes due to ischaemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease. IHD (ischaemic heart disease) may cause chest pain (angina) or symptoms of heart failure. A Dipyridamole-Thallium Scan (Dip-Thall) may also be used to monitor the effects of treatment in a patient known to have ischaemic heart disease (angina).
Dipyridamole-Thallium Scan (Dip-Thall) results may show:
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