Adenosine Stress Test For Heart Disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major cause of illness, and common form of heart disease. It is when the blood flow to the heart muscle becomes obstructed by hard cholesterol substances being deposited. This may result in symptoms like chest pain, heart attack or sudden death. Often there is no chest pain as a warning before death, which means that screening tests are performed to help detect signs before a serious event happens. If patients have risk factors such as a family history of CAD, high blood pressure, smoking or diabetes mellitus then these tests are extremely important.

Initial tests will involve testing the heart under controlled conditions, monitoring the stress on the heart . This may involve exercise cardiac stress tests or chemical tests – physiologic stress testing, for those who cannot exercise.

Exercise Cardiac Stress Test (ECST)

This kind of test is the most common, and involved the patient exercising on a treadmill where the speed and elevation will be steadily increased. Heart rate, EKG, blood pressure and heart rhythm will all be monitored carefully during this test. Any blockages during exercise will result in a lower EKG as well as a noticeable response in heart rate/ blood pressure.

The test is more accurate depending on the likelihood of CAD. Therefore, if a patient is old or has risk factors present then the test will be 90% accurate for showing CAD. However, a normal ECST does not mean the disease is not there, unless the patient is of low risk where it is 90% accurate that CAD does not exist. If the ECST does not accurately show CAD to be present or absent then further tests will be required including imaging of the patient’s heart. Echocardiographies also involve producing images of the heart through ultrasound

If Patients Cannot Exercise

If patients are not able to exercise for any reason then they may have pharmacological stress testing that works by administering medications to slowly increase the heart rate. This means echocardiography or radionuclide imaging can be performed .