What Can A Stress Test Tell About Heart Health

Posted by williamjack on December 12th, 2019

Heart related illnesses have been on the rise for some time now. A study conducted by MedicalNewsToday indicates that one in every four deaths in the U.S. is related to heart disease. To determine whether the heart is functioning optimally, medical practitioners conduct a stress test. The aim of this test is to ensure that blood flow and heart beat rhythm is normal.

What is stress test?

There are four types of stress test:

  •  Exercise stress test
  •  Treadmill test
  •  Graded exercise test
  •  Stress EKG

In a stress test, the patient is asked to walk on a treadmill that increases the heart beat. An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors the heart's electrical rhythms. The doctor measures the blood pressure and monitors whether there are any symptoms like chest discomfort or fatigue. Abnormalities in blood pressure, heart rate, or ECG or worsening physical symptoms could point to coronary artery disease (CAD), fatty deposits (plaques). These diseases reduce the amount of oxygen rich blood flow to the heart muscle. Stress testing detects arteries that are narrowed to more than 70%.  

Symptoms

There are numerous symptoms that indicate abnormal functioning of the heart. These symptoms are:

Chest pain with activity

Unexplained shortness of breath

An abnormal stress test points to a higher risk of CAD. Old age, overweight, or high cholesterol are some of the factors that could lead to heart problems. It could also be a underlining effect of diseases like diabetes, cancer or depression.

What does test results mean?

An exercise stress ekg test is designed to find out if one or more of the coronary arteries feeding the heart contain fatty deposits blocking a blood vessel by 70% or more. A stress test results could mean the following:

Test result

What it could mean

What could still happen

What is the next step?

Normal

No significant coronary artery disease (70% or greater artery blockage).

Possibility of having a heart attack if a smaller blockage (less than 70%) ruptures and forms a clot.

Further testing should be done if you have other risk factors for heart disease that raise concern.

Abnormal

Have coronary artery disease (70% or greater blockage).

The abnormal result may be a false alarm, and could require further testing to confirm.

The doctor may advise additional tests to confirm that you have coronary artery disease.

Author’s Bio: The author is a blogger and the article is about stress test.

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williamjack
Joined: August 24th, 2016
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