July 19, 2021

JUL 19, at heart: dobutamine for myocardial perfusion imaging



Authors' Note:    The verse above is a companion verse to ”dipyridamole”. 

When doctors want to check whether all areas of heart muscle can increase their blood flow appropriately, they may use certain drugs as helpers; this is particularly true when the patient is unable to perform a submaximal exercise test, often called a Bruce treadmill test, after its inventor. Dobutamine (doh-BYOO-ta-meen), relative of adrenaline, raises heart rate and blood pressure. It's the only drug available for tests which use echocardiography to picture the heart while it is 'under stress', but is a second-choice drug for the nuclear imaging test called gated SPECT. The preferred drug for those tests is one whose primary effect is to dilate arterial blood vessels, increasing the flow to normal heart muscle. Such drugs include dipyridamole and adenosine.


You can view more poems on this topic by proceeding to "Cardiologic Tracings: AT HEART" (parts #1 and #2) on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!
 





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