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Is it possible that he is ordering an MPI test? That stands for Myocardial Perfusion Imaging if he ordered an MPI test.

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is non-invasive and shows how well blood flows through (perfuses) your heart muscle. It can show areas of the heart muscle that aren’t getting enough blood flow. This test is often called a nuclear stress test. It can also show how well the heart muscle is pumping.

There are 2 techniques for MPI: single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET).

MPI is useful in patients with chest discomfort to see if the discomfort comes from lack of blood flow to the heart caused by narrowed or blocked heart arteries (angina). Myocardial perfusion imaging doesn’t show the heart arteries themselves, but can tell your doctor with good certainty if any heart arteries are blocked and how many. MPI can also show if you’ve previously had a heart attack.

If you have chest pain and an abnormal MPI study, the next step may be performing a coronary angiogram. On the other hand, if the MPI study is normal, your doctor can confidently look into other causes of chest pain that aren’t related to the heart.

The way the test is done is that your are hooked up with leads as with a regular treadmill test. And you have a regular exercise stress test. When you reach your peak activity level, you’ll stop and receive a small amount of radioactive material (tracer) through the IV line. You’ll lie still on a table for 10- 30 minutes while the gamma camera takes pictures of your heart. Several scans are done during that time to provide pictures of thin slices of your entire heart from all angles. They'll want you to hold still with your arms above your head while the pictures are being taken.

During the resting part of the test, you’ll receive more tracer and another set of pictures will be taken. This set of images will be compared to the images taken after exercise.

Some forms of the test do not use exercise, but take 2 sets of the rest images with 2 different tracers.

The test takes between 3 and 4 hours. Some labs may do the resting part of the test first, or do the resting and exercise tests on different days.

It sounds as though you have had one of these done in the past with thallium. Is your doctor aware of your having had that test and the results of that test?

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