Our team at Sunnyvale Cardiology conducts cardiac stress tests on a routine basis to help patients from in and around Sunnyvale, Texas, stay on top of their cardiovascular health.
As a fresh, new year gets underway, our board-certified cardiologists are here to explain how adding a stress test to your heart health checkup plan can help you be more proactive about your well-being — whether you’d like to prevent heart disease, mitigate your risk, or treat an existing problem more effectively.
Cardiac stress testing — also called a stress echocardiogram (EKG) or exercise stress testing — involves placing sticky patches (electrodes) on your chest, a blood pressure cuff on your arm, and a pulse/blood oxygen monitor on your finger.
The combined information from these three cardiac assessment/diagnostic tools shows:
To get a comprehensive picture of your heart health, a stress test continuously measures these key cardiovascular indicators over the course of about 30 minutes:
Essentially, a stress test reveals how well your heart works at rest, how it responds to gradually increasing demand, and how well it recovers after activity.
Whether you’ve been experiencing concerning symptoms, you have significant risk factors for heart disease, or you simply want to attain medical clearance for a new, vigorous exercise program, a cardiac stress test can provide much-needed insight and guidance.
Having a stress test in the new year is a good idea if you:
We may also recommend cardiac stress testing for inactive people with heart disease risk factors like hypertension or obesity before they begin an exercise program. Active, healthy people who are ready to transition to a more intense exercise program can also benefit.
If you have a diagnosed heart condition, we can monitor the effectiveness of your treatment protocol with periodic stress testing.
Stress testing can provide invaluable information for your heart health checkup. It may:
By letting us see your heart rate and rhythm as well as cardiac electrical signals and blood flow during exercise, stress testing can reveal blockages, irregular rhythms, and valve issues that aren’t seen during a resting EKG exam.
Stress testing can help our team pinpoint the cause of unexplained chest pain, shortness of breath, fluttering heart rhythms, and lingering fatigue after physical exertion.
If you have heart disease risk factors like diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, excess weight, tobacco use, or family history, stress testing can estimate your heart attack risk and help guide a more targeted preventative treatment plan to mitigate your risk.
Stress testing can determine safe intensity levels for physical activity, helping you start a new fitness routine — or progress to the next level of exercise intensity — with confidence.
Stress testing shows our team whether your current heart medications and therapies are working. It can also guide decisions about the need for heart surgery and cardiac rehab.
Ready to add cardiac stress testing to your heart health plan in the new year? We’re here to help. Call or use our online booking tool to make an appointment at Sunnyvale Cardiology in Sunnyvale, Texas, today.
