Stress Test — Results show how a patient's heart responds to an increased heart rate.
Types of stress tests include:
Exercise Myocardial Perfusion Stress Test — a radioactive isotope that illuminates the vessels is injected and the patient walks on a treadmill to reach a target heart rate. Scans are taken before and after the exercise to determine changes in heart activity.
Dobutamine Myocardial Perfusion Stress Test and Persantine Myocardial Perfusion Stress Test — Similar to the Exercise Stress Test except that drugs — dobutamine or persantine — rather than treadmill exercise are used to affect heart rate.