Understanding Your Stress Test Results
A stress test is a very important test, and just as important is actually being able to understand your stress test results.
What is a Stress Test?
A stress test is a test that will help a doctor to find out how well your heart works, in particular in response to stress. Patients taking the test will first have their ECG levels taken while their heart muscle is at rest, and then will be hooked up to a machine and be made to exercise while their heart is tested.
They will usually begin by walking slowly on a treadmill or even jogging in place, and the speed will then be increased. There will be several of these increases along the way, and each time the heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure will be recorded.
Stress Test Results
You do not need to be a doctor to understand your stress test results, but it may seem confusing at first when you are not aware of what all the terms mean. It can be quite simple to understand your stress test results as long as you understand everything before having the test done.
Your stress test can either be positive or negative. If it is positive, this means that there is a specific, noticeable change on the ECG, which means that on the test, there was enough of a difference between the test taken when your heart was at rest and when your heart was under stress that there is cause for concern.
In other words this means that your heart is not responding well or dealing well to the stress that it was put under.
If the test is negative this means that this usually means that there is nothing more serious at play, no underlying heart problem present. Keep in mind however that there are certain situations in which the stress test results come up with a false positive, which means that the test incorrectly shows a positive result when it should be negative.
When there is any uncertainly regarding a stress test the attending physician will usually suggest to have the test performed a second time, or a similar test may be performed using nuclear or radioactive material in order to increase the overall accuracy of the test.
This is a very important test, one that can warn you of underlying heart conditions that you may not be aware of. If caught early these sorts of conditions can usually be treated completely but if left unnoticed and untreated they can be dangerous, even potentially life threatening.
