The heart is like any other muscle - you have to condition it to avoid injury and that means eating right and exercising to provide the nutrients and other things it needs to proper function....

The heart is like any other muscle – you have to condition it to avoid injury and that means eating right and exercising to provide the nutrients and other things it needs to proper function. Part of this “proper function” is the health of the arteries in your body, especially the ones around the heart and lungs. When the heart muscle and arteries are at risk for heart disease, there are different tests usually run to determine the extent of damage.

Your particular cardiac problem will likely determine the type of testing you are subjected to when you present symptoms of possible heart disease. The first thing the doctor will do however is get your family history as well as your own health history to determine if there are any possible genetic anomalies. There are risk factors that have to be assessed as well before choosing the type of testing that would best diagnose your problem. Here are some of those tests:

1. EKG (electrocardiogram) – The heart when healthy produces electrical impulses that can be measured on the surface of the skin. When the heart is operating at diminished capacity, it produces fewer electrical impulses. It is important to note that sometimes normal, healthy hearts on occasion produce abnormal EKG readings so it is important for them to be taken at different times and compare results.

2. Echocardiography – This type of test is used to inspect how the heart operates. The echocardiogram emits sound waves inside the heart which then translates into an image. From this image you can inspect the heart’s overall structure, how thick the walls are, view the pericardial sac and even view the septum. The purpose of this test is to check for the blood flow from one chamber of the heart to another as well as the arteries to and from as well. How well the blood is pushed out of the heart is also assessed through this test.

3. Radioactive perfusion – Doctors use special chemicals to inject into a vein and then the heart is inspected to see what the uptake is. When the uptake is low, meaning blood flow is not entirely normal; this could signal such things as narrowing of the arteries.

4. Stress test – If you take an EKG and the results are rather normal, a stress test is performed while taking another EKG to monitor changes. The most known stress test is the treadmill exercise although there are medication means should you physically not be able to do the treadmill. The stress test is important as it could reveal electrical impulse changes that were otherwise hidden in the EKG in the first place.

5. Angiogram or catheterization – This test requires the heart surgeon to thread a small hollow tube through an artery in order to inject a dye which will bring the coronary arteries into better view during an x-ray.

6. CT scanning tomography – This CT scanning test creates a comprehensive representation of the blood vessels so a surgeon can tell if the arteries in and around the heart show disease.

There is no one particular test that will definitely give you the verdict of heart disease. If you are at risk, you may have to take several tests such as those above to definitively prove presence of the disease.

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