While we don’t want to stress your heart out, stress testing is crucial in investigating chest pain. In a stress test, we would ask you to exercise for about 10 minutes while closely monitoring your heart and blood pressure. Physical activity can potentially make your heart pump at a faster rate than normal and reveal any existing heart blood flow abnormalities. We might also view your heart before and after peak heart rate is reached through ultrasound, and this is called stress echocardiography. To perform the test, you will lie on your side and our trained professionals will apply a special gel to your skin and place a transducer. This device will emit ultrasonic waves that bounce off the heart, which are received and interpreted by the special doppler sensor.
We might suggest a stress test or an echocardiogram if we suspect coronary artery disease or ischemic heart disease, commonly known as a heart attack. A stress test or stress echocardiography usually takes less than 60 minutes. Do not worry if you can not exercise, we can alternatively use a pharmacologic agent to induce stress conditions inside your body and perform the test.