Exercise stress test constitutes a screening tool to detect the CAD i.e. Coronary Artery Disease in patients. Documentation procedure associated with medications, symptoms, present and past illnesses and physical activity helps doctors to determine the accuracy of the respective exercise stress test.
Physical examination in this case should involve the walking as well as physical exercising ability of a person and every possible sign related to serious or acute problem, which may affect the results of the stress test or ability of any patient in performing the stress test.
Stress test report contains various comments about the highest possible heart rate and achieved the physical exercise level, along with necessary symptoms, electrocardiographies variations, arrhythmias and vital signs at the time of doing physical exercise.
This stress test report helps doctors to determine either submaximal or maximal stress test. The quality of the stress test and the performance level give validity of the obtained results. The conclusion section present in the stress test highlights the results, which were any among the negative, positive, uninterpretable and equivocal results.
What Does it Mean to Have A Positive Stress Test?
Positive stress test result primarily indicates a cardiac problem. This consists of any one among the following:
- Changes/variations in the electrocardiogram highlights a low supply of oxygen to the muscles of the human heart
- Difficulty to inhale/exhale or severe pain in the chest
- Blood pressure, heart rate or both fail to increase in an adequate way at the time of doing physical exercises
- Results obtained from a nuclear stress test highlight the specific cardiac areas, which increase in an adequate way at the time of doing exercises.
The positive stress test result obtained from the stress test highlights coronary heart problems; however, not all of the patients suffering from any positive stress test have CAD problems. The doctor in this case may request to conduct further tests.
Complications of the Stress Test
Positive stress test results may indicate the following complications-
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Low Blood Pressure
Patients may suffer low blood pressure or sudden drop in the blood pressure at the time or doing exercises or immediately after they complete the exercise, possibly cause dizziness or faintness.
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Arrythmias or Abnormal Heart Rhythms
Positive stress test result may even indicate the complicated problem of Arrythmias or Abnormal Heart Rhythms in patients. This problem takes place whenever the electrical impulses coordinating the rhythm of the patients’ heart fail to function in a right way leading to fastest or slowest possible heart beat rate and even on an irregular basis.
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Myocardial Infarction
The positive exercise stress test indicates provoking of heart attack problems or myocardial infarction.
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Further Recommendations by the Doctor
Whenever the doctor observes the result of the stress test as positive or highlights coronary artery problems, also referred as arrhythmia, he collects the information at the time of the stress test to develop a suitable treatment plan. In this case, the doctor may recommend for additional tests as well as evaluations in the form of coronary angiogram depending primarily on the research study and key findings.
Moreover, if the objective behind the exercise stress test is to guide a suitable treatment to deal with the heart condition, doctors will use the stress test data to set up or modify the actual treatment plan based on the requirements.
On the other side, doctors may recommend for another type of nuclear stress test, which includes an echocardiogram test to do before and after the physical exercise. Particularly, doctors recommend patients for echocardiogram if they observe severe symptoms in patients. These stress tests give relatively higher accurate results and highlight a detailed information about the function of your heart and are relatively more expensive.
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