How is CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) Diagnosed ?
The doctor checks the patient’s medical history, asks you to describe your symptoms, he listens to the heart with a stethoscope and perform studies that often include a chest Radiograph. The following is a list of other tests that your doctor may prescribe:
- An electrocardiogram (ECG) reference that records the electrical activity of the heart at rest and while performing an ECG exercise, also called “stress test”, which indicates how the heart responds to exercise more and more intense. The purpose of both studies is to detect if the heart is not working properly, possibly due to a lack of oxygen.
- A thallium stress test, a nuclear cardiology study that involves injecting a radioactive substance into the bloodstream to show how blood flows through the arteries. Doctors can determine if your heart muscle is damaged or dead, or if an artery has a significant narrowing. People who can not undergo a stress test may receive medications that make the heart beat as if you were exercising.
- An Echocardiogram, a test that uses sound waves to produce an image of the heart to see how it works.
- Coronary angiography, a study performed in a cardiac Catheterization laboratory. First is given a sedative to relax the patient. A dye is then injected into the bloodstream to produce an X-ray “movie” of the heart’s activity and the flow of blood through the valves and arteries (what is called an angiogram). The angiogram shows how many obstructions there are and how serious they are. Doctors often use this test to determine what would be the most effective treatment.
- A positron emission tomography (PET), a technique that uses information about the power of certain elements of the organism to determine whether certain parts of the heart muscle are alive and active. The PET scan can also determine if the heart gets enough blood to keep the muscle healthy.
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