Stress Test

The illustration shows a patient having a stress test. Electrodes are attached to the patient’s chest and connected to an EKG (electrocardiogram) machine. The EKG records the heart’s electrical activity. A blood pressure cuff is used to record the patient’s blood pressure while he walks on a treadmill.

Stress testing provides your cardiologist with information about how your heart works during physical stress. Some heart problems are easier to diagnose when your heart is working hard and beating fast. During a stress test, you exercise (walk or run on a treadmill or pedal a bicycle) or are given a medicine to make your heart work harder while heart tests are performed.

During these tests, your heart is monitored using images or through dime-sized electrodes attached to your chest, arms, or legs. You may be asked to breathe into a special tube during the test. This will allow your doctor to see how well you’re breathing.

You may have arthritis or another medical problem that prevents you from exercising during a stress test. If so, your cardiologist can give you a medicine that makes your heart work harder, as it would if you were exercising. This is called a pharmacological stress test.

If you can’t exercise, a technician will inject a medicine into a vein in your arm or hand. This medicine will increase the flow of blood through the coronary arteries and/or make your heart beat faster, as would exercise. This results in your heart working harder, so the stress test can be performed. The medicine may make you flushed and anxious, but the effects disappear as soon as the test is over. The medicine may also give you a headache.

Learn More