Understanding the Purpose of an Exercise Stress Test
If your doctor ordered you to have an exercise stress test, also known as an ECG stress tests or a treadmill stress tests, it is most likely because of one of the following reasons:
you are having symptoms that would suggest you may have coronary artery disease (CAD) your lifestyle or family history put you at risk of having CAD you have been experiencing either shortness of breath or fatigue you have high blood pressure or an irregular heart beat
An exercise stress test, then, will test your arterial blood flow to evaluate whether you are at risk of having a heart attack in the future.
How the Test Will be Performed
There are two ways your doctor might perform the test depending on your mobility. Your doctor will either have you exercise (by walking on a treadmill or by riding a stationary bike) while being monitored on a electrocardiogram (ECG, not to be confused with a purchased EKG machine) and a blood pressure machine, or if you are not able to exercise, he might give you a medication (such as dipyridamole, adenosine, or dobutamine) intravenously which will stimulate the heart as if you had been exercising.
Understanding the Test Results
It is true that exercise stress results are not completely accurate. In fact, according to the American Heart Association, the reliability of an exercise stress test is only 67% and 10% of patients with positive results are found to have a false-positive. Also, exercise stress tests do not detect all causes of potential heart attacks. For instance, it will not detect vulnerable plaques which can cause CAD and potentially could cause a heart attack.
With that said, if you have gotten a positive exercise stress reading, you should not by any means simply ignore the results. Just because a positive result does not mean you are a for sure going to have a heart attack, it does mean that you are at higher risk to have a heart attack and you should evaluate your lifestyle accordingly (eat healthy and stay fit). The same goes for if you got a negative result. If you do not maintain a healthy lifestyle, you are still at risk for a heart attack even if your exercise stress test came back negative. It is important that you discuss your results with your physician and that you both come up with a game plan for a healthy future.
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