4 Things a Stress Test Can Reveal About Your Health

Cardiologists order stress tests because they provide valuable information about how your heart functions when it’s placed under physical stress, such as exercise. The results also help determine the underlying cause of symptoms, such as shortness of breath and chest pain, informing effective treatment.

At Heart Vascular & Leg Center, our expert team of board-certified vascular specialists routinely conducts stress tests for our patients in Bakersfield, California, who have been diagnosed with cardiac disease or who are at risk. Here’s what a stress test can reveal about your health.

The function and types of stress tests

The primary reason for performing a cardiac stress test is to determine how well your heart handles its workload. By design, the test increases your body’s need for oxygen, so your heart needs to pump more oxygenated blood to keep pace. 

There are three different types of stress tests.

1. Exercise

Also known as a treadmill stress test or a stress EKG, this is the most common type of stress test. You walk on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike for about 15-20 minutes, during which time we ramp up the speed to make your heart work harder. Simultaneously, we monitor your pulse, blood pressure, and heart’s electrical activity (EKG).

2. Medication

If you can’t exercise, we use a medication that produces the same effect on your heart as exercise.

3. Nuclear

Known as a nuclear heart test or radionuclide scan, this form of stress test provides us with a more detailed assessment of how your heart functions. You use the treadmill/bicycle just as in the exercise stress test, but we first inject a tracer dye into your bloodstream that highlights your heart and blood flow around it. 

Following the exercise, we take a cardiac PET (positron emission tomography) scan and examine the dye’s location. If the dye doesn’t penetrate into a certain area, that indicates you have a blockage that needs to be cleared to restore normal heart function. 

4 things a stress test can reveal about your health (and more)

The stress test results reveal four important details about your heart:

1. Abnormalities in rate (your pulse)
2. Abnormalities in your blood pressure (heart’s pumping effectiveness)
3. Changes in rhythm (arrhythmias or flutters)
4. Abnormal electrical activity (important for effective contractions)

The results also show us if a cardiac exercise program is helpful and determine the kind and level of physical activity that’s right for you if you’re just starting.

If you develop chest pain or shortness of breath during the test, it may indicate you have carotid artery disease, a blockage in the arteries that supply the brain. To follow up, we order additional tests, such as a carotid ultrasound and base treatment around those results.

A study presented in 2013 at the American Thoracic Society conference gave new value to stress tests. The study suggested that the test could also identify people with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a disorder where you don’t breathe for brief periods while asleep. Since OSA also stresses the heart, a stress test might provide information about who’s at risk for experiencing life-threatening complications.

If you have any potential signs of heart disease, you need to come into Heart Vascular & Leg Center for an evaluation and stress test to determine what, if any, treatment is needed. Give our office a call at 661-443-5524 to set one up, or book online today.