Even so, the doctor might still want to do more tests.īut it's important to understand that a "normal" stress test can't rule out the chance that a plaque will later rupture and block an artery-the proverbial tale of the man who passes a stress test with flying colors and then has a heart attack a week later. "That person is less likely to have significant coronary artery disease," Dr. If you have symptoms and the test result looks normal, the risk of CAD is lower. Confirming it could require further testing. "This points strongly to coronary artery disease." Dr.
But it's more worrisome in a man who also has risk factors like older age, being overweight, or high cholesterol. It can't absolutely rule it out or diagnose it." What does a stress test show?įor men with symptoms like chest pain with activity or unexplained shortness of breath, an abnormal stress test points to a higher risk of CAD. "It can be used to move the probability up or down of there being coronary artery disease. "The test result is never, by itself, certain," Dr. But stress testing doesn't accurately diagnose all cases of CAD, and sometimes it points to CAD in people who do not actually have the condition. If stress testing were 100% accurate, everyone would be having them regularly. Abnormalities in blood pressure, heart rate, or ECG or worsening physical symptoms could point to coronary artery disease (CAD): fatty deposits (plaques) that reduce the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle. The doctor also measures your blood pressure and monitors whether you have symptoms like chest discomfort or fatigue. An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors your heart's electrical rhythms. In a stress test, you walk on a treadmill that makes your heart work progressively harder. "But it helps decide what the next step should be." What is a stress test? "An exercise stress test is not 100% accurate-no medical test is," Dr. With caveats, the procedure still has a valuable role to play in diagnosing worrisome symptoms like chest pain-especially in older men with risk factors for heart disease.
Deepak Bhatt, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of cardiology for the VA Boston Healthcare System, for insight into what an exercise stress test can and cannot tell you about your heart. Is this trend against stress testing healthy for older men? We asked Dr. But expert guidelines now discourage such "just in case" stress testing. What can a cardiac stress test tell me about my heart? Once it was common for a man middle-aged or older to get an annual exercise stress test to make sure his heart was still ticking like a fine watch. A cardiac stress test can determine your risk of heart disease, but often requires follow-up testing.
0 kommentar(er)
