What Is A Stress Test?

“Cardiac stress tests are used to evaluate the workload of your heart. Traditionally in the United States, a stress test is performed on a treadmill. Occasionally it is done on the bicycle, especially in the European countries. For people who cannot exercise, they can do something called pharmacological stress test – that means they can insert an IV or intravenous line in the arm and give you medication, which can increase your heart rate and also increase blood flow to the heart. Usually a stress test checks your heart rate and blood pressure and the workload. Once the patient can exercise more than nine minutes, we consider the patient is in a good heart healthy condition. However, if the patient cannot exercise significantly – either because of physical condition, because of arthritis, or other conditions – they do a pharmacological stress test. Normally, you do a treadmill test, along with imaging. Either by echocardiogram – we call it stress echocardiogram, where you put a little gel on the chest and image your heart and take a picture before and after the exercise, or you can do something called a nuclear stress test, where we inject something in the IV called isotope, which will take a picture of the heart and evaluate if there is any blood flow discrepancy addressed and post exercise. A cardiac stress test is a very important test to look at blood flow abnormalities to the heart, and it also gives you a suggestion to if you have a significant blocked artery. You can see myself or one of my colleagues who can help you understand more and schedule you for a cardiac stress test and see whether you’re at risk of significant heart disease.”