A Peek at Cardiac Stress Tests

There are certain functions the human body is designed to perform during periods of increased pressure and stress. The body also has predictable biochemical reactions. One way your body reacts to stress is by getting your heart to work harder, essentially increasing cardiac output. For the body to be able to deal with the stressful situation, essentially your heart rate and your blood pressure rise. A doctor will perform a stress test to determine how your heart can handle the extra demands, which is what stress tests excel at. If there are current symptoms of heart disease, then a cardiac stress test might be give to look for blockage in the arteries of your cardiovascular system. Stress tests are particularly valuable because very often there are no outward indications of a problem when a person is at rest. Or, any other problems that are not detected unless the heart is in a stressed state. This is common knowledge because just like other things, problems do not arise until more pressure is present on the current demands. The stress EKG is an extremely practical tool for doctors because it provides information on how the patient's heart can pump blood. Also, the walls of the heart can be visualized, and the motion can provide additional clues regarding normalcy or problems. As with other test, the response of the heart while in a distress condition is what doctors are most interested in learning about. The EKG is just a simple picture of the activity that is going on while the heart is under stress. The benefit of this test is that it can detect blood flow problems that are due to blockage that might not have otherwise been detected by other testing. The degree of reliability of the isotope stress test depends on several important factors. For example, the image must be sufficiently clear and a particular heart rate reached. If all these conditions are satisfied then a doctor can diagnose the situation reliably in 85% of coronary artery disease patients. A 100% rate of accuracy is impossible because there are so many other variables that play a role. Of course there are also false positives in addition to a range of conditions that can interfere with making an accurate diagnosis. Every kind of cardiac stress test has its benefits and a possible purpose. They aid in helping doctors achieve the best available diagnosis. Remember that there are certain circumstances with each test that might have an effect on how the results and diagnosis are in terms of accuracy.