Dobutamine stress echo

[pepper_uk]

Hi,Have received a letter for admission to get a dobutamine stress echo done with the view of staying in hospital after.

Recently I have been having chest pain that comes and goes at any time and is relieved with GTN spray. It can last moments or for quite a time.

Atypical chest pain has been diagnosed on my medical record and now they want this done to see how well my heart it working.

It is nearly 5 years since my heart attack and diagnosed with heart failure. I am on the same concoction of drugs since leaving hospital then too!

Good news though my diabetes is great I inject Ozempic and I have lost over 2 stone in weight and am at my fittest ever weighing in at 10 stone 5.

Has anyone had one of these tests and what was you experience of it?

TIA Tracy

[Garden24]

Hi. I had a Dobutamine Stress Test recently. The staff & Doctor who had to be present, explained things well, beforehand. They site a cannula in your arm & attach an infusion to it. Dobutamine increases your heart rate & they want to check how your heart is coping by increasing it & therefore putting it under stress. They figure out beforehand how high they require your heart rate to reach. Think it’s worked out on age/diagnosis/weight. For eg 130 bests per minute when your normal heart rate might be 80bpm at rest. As you can imagine this increase in heart rate is a weird sensation! I felt like my heart was beating out of my chest. You are on a cardiac monitor throughout the test & whilst it’s being done, they are using an ultra sound Echo machine to take images etc. Your heart rate will go down by decreasing then stopping the Dobutamine ( the drug) but if it doesn’t come down enough, they can give you a small dose of beta blocker which brings the rate down. They gave me the result more or less immediately afterwards. I will get a more in detail result at my follow up appointment with the Cardiologist. Hope this helps!

[pepper_uk in reply to Garden24]

Hi Garden24, thank you so much for your reply. A full insight too as to the procedure, better than advised by the hospital themselves. Certainly does help too!

Thank you xx

[Garden24 in reply to pepper_uk]

You are most welcome xx