(HealthDay News) — A stress test evaluates the way your heart works during exercise and while you’re at rest.
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says your doctor may have ordered a stress test:
- To diagnose — or determine the extent of — coronary heart disease.
- To diagnose a problem with the heart’s valves.
- To show how the heart withstands exercise after a heart attack.
- To determine how well a clog-clearing procedure called angioplasty has alleviated reduced blood flow to the heart.
- To determine if you have arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat.
- To help explain why you can’t catch your breath during exercise.