A graded exercise stress test is a very commonly performed test to learn:

• How well your heart pumps blood.

• Whether your heart is receiving an adequate blood supply.

• How you perform on physical activity.

• If your symptoms (chest discomfort, shortness of breath, palpitations or even dizziness) can be reproduced while performing physical activity.

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This makes it easier to identify and evaluate certain heart issues, such as:

• Issues with your muscle or valves.

• Adequate blood supply to your heart muscle.

• Electric stability of your heart at rest and during exercise.

Cardiac stress tests help healthcare providers determine whether you need additional - often more invasive - testing to confirm a diagnosis, or if treatment might lower your heart attack risk and make you feel better.

Also known as myocardial perfusion studies, this test helps diagnose heart disease. A healthcare provider injects a small amount of radioactive substance called a tracer or a radiopharmaceutical, into the bloodstream. Your blood vessels and heart muscle absorb the tracer, making them more visible in images. Then the provider uses a special camera to take pictures of blood flow in and around the heart. 

A healthcare provider can use two different imaging technologies for a nuclear cardiac stress test:

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• Exercise stress test: You exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike to increase blood flow to the heart and reach a target heart rate.

• Pharmacologic stress test: If you can't exercise, you receive medication to increase blood flow and stress the heart.

An echocardiogram, or echo, is a test that shows how well your heart is working. Your technician will use an ultrasound to produce moving images of your heart. These images will allow your healthcare provider to see the shape, size and motion of your heart and valves. 

An exercise stress echo (also called a stress echo, or echo stress test) assesses your heart's function when it is beating fast. You create this "stress" by exercising on a treadmill or a bicycle. 

An echocardiogram (echo) is a graphic outline of your heart’s movement. During an echo test, your healthcare provider uses ultrasound (high-frequency sound waves) from a hand-held wand placed on your chest to take pictures of your heart’s valves and chambers. This helps the provider evaluate the pumping action of your heart.
 

Providers often combine echo with Doppler ultrasound and colour Doppler techniques to evaluate blood flow across your heart’s valves.
 

Echocardiography uses no radiation. This makes an echo different from other tests like X-rays and CT scans that use small amounts of radiation.

Several techniques can be used to create pictures of your heart. The best technique depends on your specific condition and what your provider needs to see. These techniques include:

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Two-dimensional (2D) ultrasound. This approach is used most often. It produces 2D images that appear as “slices” on the computer screen. Traditionally, these slices could be “stacked” to build a 3D structure.
 

Doppler ultrasound. This technique shows how fast your blood flows, and also in what direction.
 

Colour Doppler ultrasound. This technique also shows your blood flow, but it uses different colours to highlight the different directions of flow.
 

Strain imaging. This approach shows changes in how your heart muscle moves. It can catch early signs of some heart disease.
 

Contrast imaging. Your provider injects a substance called a contrast agent into one of your veins. The substance is visible in the images and can help show details of your heart. Some people experience an allergic reaction to the contrast agent, but reactions are usually mild.

A Holter monitor is a wearable device that records your heart’s rhythm and rate activity. It gives your provider a full picture of what your heart rhythm and rate does as you go about your life.

This monitor is:

• Small, about the size of a cellphone.

• Battery operated.

• Equipped with wires and electrodes (small patches) that stick to your skin.
   

A Holter monitor records your heart’s electrical activity for 24, 48, 72 hours or for 7 days under some circumstances. . While you wear it, you continue to do your regular daily activities but cannot bath or shower while wearing the device.

Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a way of measuring and managing high blood pressure (hypertension).
 

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring allows your blood pressure (BP) readings to be recorded over a 24-hour period, whether you’re awake or asleep.
 

Ambulatory BP monitoring yields many readings over a continuous period. In most cases, readings are taken every 20 to 30 minutes during the day and every hour at night. Your heart rate can be measured at the same time. These multiple readings are averaged over the 24-hour period. Changes in BP and heart rate, the BP distribution pattern and other statistics are calculated.