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Question:
What does mild anterior attenuation mean?
What does mild anterior attenuation mean? I had a stress test done on Friday 2/26/2010 and this term was in the report. Another term that was used in the report is "mild anterior defect."
submitted by Eleda from Houston, Texas on 2/28/10
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, Domingo Gonzalez, MD
When someone gets a nuclear stress test they are injected with a nuclear tagged substance. Some of that is taken up by the heart muscle and then gives off energized photons or light particles that are picked up by a salt crystal and then processed by a computer into images that are seen by a doctor. A normal heart with no blockage and normal blood flow has homogeneous or equal blood flow thoughout the territory of all the heart arteries. So the picture looks the same front and back, middle and sides. If there is a blockage in one artery then there is decreased relative blood flow to the part of the heart supplied by that artery and a defect shows up to indicate that. However even in a heart with normal arteries, a defect can show up that is caused by something else that is in the way between the heart and the camera. This can be a breast or the lung, diaphragm, gallbladder, liver, stomach or intestines. If this happens it is called attenuation. A fixed defect can be attenuation or a scar from previous heart damage.
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Updated March 2010
