Cardiac Stress Test : Check If You Suffer From Any Heart Disease

Everyone has to go through the testing for stress at some point or the other in their lives and the result of such stress tests can help us reduce the tension of getting stress. Cardiac stress test is one of the most recommended tests from the list of different stress tests available for you to check your stress level and body condition. Being an introductory and a physical test, this cardiac stress test is preferred to estimate the performance of your heart muscles.

Is Your Heart Performing Well?

Your doctor will suggest a cardiac stress test to get a clear impression of the functioning of your heart that also determines the pulmonary functioning. The patient will be put on some mild exercises, like walking on a treadmill, and at the same time connected to an EKG which displays the heart’s performance when the exercise gradually becomes to a fast jogging from mere walking.

The prime aim of a cardiac stress test is to find out the flow of blood from the arteries to the heart muscle at two given conditions - one, when the body is put on a high impulse exercise and second, when the body is at complete rest. The cardiac stress test can also reveal the general health and fitness of the patient. However, it should be noted that other psychological effects of stress, like emotional stress, cannot be measured with the help of this test.

The cardiac stress test can be best used to test the malfunctioning of the heart and any inconsistency in the circulation of blood to the different parts of the ventricular muscle tissue in the heart. Do you know that it is the left ventricular that performs the most to keep the blood pumping to other parts of the body? So it becomes crucial to find any inconsistency of the flow of blood in your heart muscle which can be verified by undergoing the cardiac stress test.

The most common use of the cardiac stress test compared to the other kinds of tests performed for stress, is to check for the existence and the severity of any coronary artery disease. Coronary artery diseases cause blockages in the coronary arteries of a person, which to a great extent influences the circulation of blood to the heart muscles. The shortage of blood can lead to lack of oxygen in the heart muscles and a person can experience severe discomfort. The physician prescribes such patients for a cardiac stress test to determine the source of the condition or the disease.

Assessing the performance of the heart and the vascular system when the body is put on exercises is the fundamental reason of a cardiac stress test recommended by the doctor. This also helps your physician diagnose any hidden heart problem and the extent to which it can be treated at that point of time.