How
does stress echo work?
Narrowed arteries end up supplying reduced blood flow to it’s area of
distribution in the heart muscle, causing that muscle area to starve during
exercise, causing symptoms, EKG changes and reduced movement of that area in
the left ventricle (the pumping chamber of the heart), this abnormality in
wall motion will be detected by using the echocardiography. This test is
done at base line, at rest, and then after exercise (treadmill or
pharmacological).
How safe is a stress echo
test?
No adverse effects from the ultrasound used during echo imaging.
The risk of the stress portion
of the test is the same as reported in the previous pages.
What is the reliability of
stress echo?
If the patient achieve target heart rate, and had good echo images, stress
echo is capable of diagnosing heart diseases in more than 85% of patients
with coronary artery disease