In some cases, a cardiologist will use a less-invasive procedure called a stress test to assess the possibility of coronary heart disease. This test records the heart’s activity during exercise, either walking on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike to see whether the heart responds normally to the stress of exercise.
In other cases where the patient is incapable of this type of exercise, the cardiologist will infuse a drug into the bloodstream to increase the heart rate or to affect the flow of blood within the heart and an echocardiogram is used to obtain images of the heart. If the results of this procedure suggest the presence of coronary artery disease, a subsequent referral for cardiac catheterization is likely.
Victoria’s comment: I had a stress test when I was first diagnosed with CHF. The doctors used a radioactive dye and a special camera to get an ejection fraction. The EKG on the stress test showed that I had some blockages in my coronary arteries. I eventually had them fixed with bypass surgery. The stress test is tiring and made me very short of breath.