St Vincents Private Hospitals

How does it work?

Exercise stress echocardiograms are completely safe and non-invasive. During the test, your doctor will firstly take images of your heart at rest. This is known as a resting echo and is often done in conjunction with an ECG (electrocardiogram) which measures the resting electrical activity in your heart. Once the resting images are complete, your doctor will measure how your heart responds after a short period of exercise on the bike or treadmill. After 6-10 minutes of increasing intensity, a second set of echocardiogram images will be taken to give a contrasting picture of how your heart behaves under stress. 

Why do I need it?

Your doctor may recommend an exercise stress echocardiogram if you have been experiencing heart-related symptoms such as chest pain, dizziness, irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) or shortness of breath. It is often used to diagnose coronary heart disease, a condition where your coronary arteries become blocked and are unable to deliver enough blood to your heart. A stress echo is also a useful way to understand how well certain heart medication is working, or how much exercise you can safely tolerate after experiencing a cardiac event such as heart failure. 

What does it test for? What does it show?

Exercise stress echocardiograms are used to diagnose and monitor heart conditions such as coronary heart disease, cardiomyopathy, heart valve disease, congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension. The stress echo test results will indicate whether or not your heart is functioning normally, or whether it is unable to pump blood effectively. This may be an indicator of coronary heart disease, where the arteries have become narrowed or blocked, or as a result of previous heart damage from an event such as a heart attack.