I had my final lab test before my surgery today, and the results were good. My understanding is that the test looked at blood flow through the heart under a stress that was not related to exercise. It involved injecting a drug, dobutamine, that made my heart beat harder and then faster--up from 65 to 133 beats per minute. It was sort of strange to lie on a bed doing nothing while my heart sped up. It must be what a panic attack is like. Dobutamine, like adrenaline, is a beta-adrenergic receptor agonist. Beta-adrenergic agonists intensify the action at beta receptors in the sympathetic nervous system. At the peak heart rate, the nurse injected a beta-adrenergic receptor antagonist which lowered my heart rate by counteracting the effect of the dobutamine. I was hooked up to an EKG all of the time, and a technician took echocardiograms of the blood flow through my heart valves before the injection of the dobutamine, at the peak heart rate, and then after my heart rate dropped below 100. It all went smoothly, and my heart responded well to the test. I'm still go for the operation.
David
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