Cardiac stress test




A cardiac stress test (also referred to as a cardiac diagnostic test, cardiopulmonary exercise test, or abbreviated CPX test) is a cardiological test that measures the heart's ability to respond to external stress in a controlled clinical environment. The stress response is induced by exercise or by intravenous pharmacological stimulation.

Cardiac stress tests compare the coronary circulation while the patient is at rest with the same patient's circulation during maximum cardiac exertion, showing any abnormal blood flow to the myocardium (heart muscle tissue). The results can be interpreted as a reflection on the general physical condition of the test patient. This test can be used to diagnose coronary artery disease (also known as ischemic heart disease) and assess patient prognosis after a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Exercise-induced stressors are most commonly either exercise on a treadmill or pedalling a stationary exercise bicycle ergometer. The level of stress is progressively increased by raising the difficulty (steepness of the slope on a treadmill or resistance on an ergometer) and speed. People who cannot use their legs may exercise with a bicycle-like crank that they turn with their arms. Once the stress test is completed, the patient generally is advised to not suddenly stop activity but to slowly decrease the intensity of the exercise over the course of several minutes.

The test administrator or attending physician examines the symptoms and blood pressure response. To measure the heart's response to the stress the patient may be connected to an electrocardiogram (ECG); in this case the test is most commonly called a cardiac stress test but is known by other names, such as exercise testing, stress testing treadmills, exercise tolerance test, stress test or stress test ECG. Alternatively a stress test may use an echocardiogram for ultrasonic imaging of the heart (in which case the test is called an echocardiography stress test or stress echo), or a gamma camera to image radioisotopes injected into the bloodstream (called a nuclear stress test).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Diagnostic value

The common approach for stress testing by American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association indicates the following: Treadmill test: sensitivity 73-90%, specificity 50-74% (Modified Bruce protocol) Nuclear test: sensitivity 81%, specificity 85-95% (Sensitivity is the percentage of people with the condition who are correctly identified by the test as having the condition. Specificity is the percentage of people without the condition are correctly identified by the test as not having the condition). To arrive at the patient's post-test likelihood of disease, interpretation of the stress test result requires integration of the patient's pre-test likelihood with the test's sensitivity and specificity. This approach, first described by Diamond and Forrester in the 1970s, results in an estimate of the patient's post-test likelihood of disease. The value of stress tests has always been recognized as limited in assessing heart disease such as atherosclerosis, a c...
Read more

Function

Image
The American Heart Association recommends ECG treadmill testing as the first choice for patients with medium risk of coronary heart disease according to risk factors of smoking, family history of coronary artery stenosis, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. In 2013, in its "Exercise Standards for Testing and Training", the AHA indicated that high frequency QRS analysis during ECG treadmill test have useful test performance for detection of coronary heart disease. Perfusion stress test (with 99mTc labelled sestamibi) is appropriate for select patients, especially those with an abnormal resting electrocardiogram. Intracoronary ultrasound or angiogram can provide more information at the risk of complications associated with cardiac catheterization.
Read more