Information
Test & Diagnosis
Stress testing provides your doctor with information about how your heart works during physical stress. Some heart problems are easier to diagnose when your heart is working hard and beating fast. During a stress test, you exercise (walk or run on a treadmill or pedal a bicycle) or are given a medicine to make your heart work harder while heart tests are performed.
During these tests, your heart is monitored using images or through dime-sized electrodes attached to your chest, arms, or legs. You may be asked to breathe into a special tube during the test. This will allow your doctor to see how well you’re breathing.
You may have arthritis or another medical problem that prevents you from exercising during a stress test. If so, your doctor can give you a medicine that makes your heart work harder, as it would if you were exercising. This is called a pharmacological (FAR-ma-ko-LOJ-i-kal) stress test.
Doctors usually use stress testing to help diagnose coronary artery disease (CAD) or to see how serious this disease is in those who are known to have it. It’s sometimes used to assess other problems such as heart valve abnormalities or heart failure.
CAD occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) become hardened and narrowed with a material called plaque (plak). Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. Plaque builds up on the insides of the arteries, narrowing them and restricting blood flow to your heart.
You may not have any signs or symptoms of CAD when your heart is at rest. But when your heart has to work harder during exercise, it needs more blood and oxygen, and narrowed arteries aren’t able to supply enough blood for your heart to work well. Thus, the signs and symptoms may occur only during exercise.
A stress test can detect the following indications that your heart may not be getting enough blood during exercise.
Abnormal changes in your heart rate or blood pressure
Symptoms such as shortness of breath or chest pain
Abnormal changes in your heart rhythm or the electrical activity of your heart
During the stress test, if you can’t exercise for as long as what’s considered normal for someone your age, it may be a sign that not enough blood is flowing to your heart. But other factors besides CAD can prevent you from exercising long enough (for example, lung diseases, anemia, or poor general fitness).
DON'T HAVE Rx COVERAGE?Click Here to print out your FREE OPTIMIZERx Card and instantly begin savings on your next prescriptions!
