No, you can't turn off the machine.

[Teysa]

My mom went in for a nuclear imaging test on her heart today. To make things interesting, Mom is battery operated. She had deep brain stimulation surgery a few years back and has a special device to keep everything working. This device wreaked havoc with the results, so much so that the tech wanted to turn it off. Mom had to explain that she had exhibited symptoms of Parkinson's since 1990 and no she was not turning it off.

[Seanette]

I hope the tech's supervisor was alerted to demands like that being made!

[ComputerNecromancer]

My mom went in for a nuclear imaging test on her heart today. To make things interesting, Mom is battery operated. She had deep brain stimulation surgery a few years back and has a special device to keep everything working. This device wreaked havoc with the results, so much so that the tech wanted to turn it off. Mom had to explain that she had exhibited symptoms of Parkinson's since 1990 and no she was not turning it off.

If she was going for an MRI, it's a wonder they let her IN with something like that. the magnetic fields could wreak havoc on her gizmo!

[jedimaster91]

If it was a nuclear stress test, I can't think of a reason something like that would interfere outside of two cases. One being if it was positioned in such a way that it was blocking a clear image of the heart, two being if the stimulation put her heart in a weird rhythm and it affected the gating (how we can see the heart beat when we play back the images)

Also, there's a possibility the tech didn't know what it was. We don't see those types of devices that often. Insulin or pain pumps are much more common. If we don't know what it is or what it does, we're gonna ask if it can be removed especially if we can't see through it. And if the answer is no, we note it and deal with it. But a gamma camera like a nuclear department would use wouldn't be affected by other medical devices and it doesn't screw with them like an MRI would either. It's a passive detector. As long as we can safely move it or note why it has to be there (like a pacemaker or replacement joint, for instance), we don't care.

[prjkt]

If she was going for an MRI, it's a wonder they let her IN with something like that. the magnetic fields could wreak havoc on her gizmo!

"Nuclear Imaging" sounds more like an injection of a short-lived radioisotope into the bloodstream that shows blood flow and where it's thicker/thinner when imaged. I had such a test done when I broke my wrist a few years back.

[Teysa]

In fairness this device isn't all that common and once the tech understood what was going on she was able to work around it. Mom says the test went fairly smoothly after that. If nothing else, the tech will know what to do if she runs into the situation again.

[Sapphire Silk]

If she was going for an MRI, it's a wonder they let her IN with something like that. the magnetic fields could wreak havoc on her gizmo!

Not all MRI machines do that anymore. It depends a lot on the device.

[TheSHAD0W]

Here's a video showing how effective brain stimulation can be at controlling Parkinsonism, and why victims really don't like to turn it off!