Patient Guide
Stress/Echo
Some patients have blocked coronary arteries that cannot be detected until the heart muscle is exercised (stressed). During exercise, normal arteries will expand (dilate) to permit more blood to flow to the heart. However, blocked arteries are not able to expand as much as normal arteries. So, when the heart muscle is exercised and calls for more blood flow, a blocked artery may be unable to provide enough needed blood. When this happens, symptoms may occur including chest pain, shortness of breath, abnormalities in the electrical activity of the heart, or changes in the way the walls of the heart move. A stress echo/test is designed to identify those symptoms of a blocked coronary artery. A stress/echo test is, as the name suggests, the combination of a cardiac stress test and an echocardiogram.
