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Know The Health Of Your Heart With Cardiac Stress Test

By Andrew Wright


If your heart is working hard or throbbing faster, the doctor says that it is easier to diagnose some problem in the heart. Therefore, testing stress gives information on how your heart functions by subjecting physical strains on the heart. You can pedal a stationary bike or treadmill walk while conducting a cardiac stress test. Checking the heart is performed when you are exercising because it results in your heart beating faster as well as working harder.

It may be impossible to do exercises when your heart is undergoing testing because of arthritis or certain medical problems. In such a circumstance, the doctor prescribes drugs to subject the heart to hard work, similar to when doing an exercise. This is a kind of testing referred to as pharmacological stress testing.

Physicians use heart testing methods to diagnose the coronary heart disease or find out its severity. Coronary heart disease arises when a waxy substance known as plaque builds in your coronary arteries, which carry blood rich in oxygen to the heart. When the plaques build up, they narrow the arteries thereby reducing blood flow to the heart muscle. Plaques can also increase blood clot which seriously block the flow of blood through the artery. This is when conditions such as angina or chest pain and heart attack arise.

Sometimes, individual suffering from coronary heart ailment may not depict the signs of the disease. However, detecting the condition is possible by subjecting heart to hard work. When the heart is subject to hard tasks, for instance during exercises, more oxygenated blood is required. Therefore, the heart may not function well due to a limited supply of blood because of narrowed arteries. Additionally, it is during exercises that signs of coronary disease occur.

Other problems are as well detectable during the stress test. The problems may suggest that sufficient oxygenated blood is not reaching your heart during exercises. The test primarily indicates blood pressure, heart rate or abnormal changes. Then signs of chest pain and breath shortness can be detected at abnormal heart rhythm and lower levels of exercise.

If you cannot perform the exercise for the time considered normal for your age during the test, this could be a sign of lack of sufficient flow of blood to the heart. Other factors other than coronary heart disease may lower the exercise duration. Such factors are such as anemia, lung disease, and poor general fitness. Doctors can also use stress testing to look at other problems like heart failure and heart valve disease.

Although exercise stress test is the standard testing, your doctor in Princeton, NJ, can use various tests. Information on your heart response to physical strain can be given by conducting a test known as treadmill test. Monitoring of heart rate, electrocardiogram, and blood pressure is done when performing the test.

Your doctor may as well employ nuclear stress testing. This is important in finding out parts of the heart that are healthy or unhealthy. The doctor administers an injection with a radioactive substance in a small amount and observes the rays produced by the element using a special camera. Exact areas in your heart with dwindling in blood supply can be detected in this way.




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