What happens during the Exercise Stress Test?
First, during a stress test, a technician will gently clean 10 small areas on your chest and place electrodes (small, flat, sticky patches) on these areas. The electrodes are attached to an electrocardiograph monitor (ECG or EKG) that charts the heart’s electrical activity during the test.
Before the patient start exercising, the technician will perform an ECG to measure the heart rate at rest and will take the blood pressure. Patient will begin to exercise by walking on a treadmill (at Bangkok Heart Hospital) or pedaling a stationary bicycle. The rate of exercise or degree of difficulty will gradually increase. The patient will be asked to exercise until he/she feels near exhausted. The doctor may stop the test when the patient heart rate reach adequate level or if the patient develops symptom of chest, arm, or jaw pain or discomfort, short of breath, dizzy, lightheaded, or any other unusual symptoms. At regular intervals, the lab personnel will ask how the patient are feeling. The lab personnel will watch for any symptoms or changes on the ECG monitor that suggest the test should be stopped. It is normal for the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and respiration to increase during the test. After the test the patient will walk slowly for a short period of time to cool down. Your heart rate, blood pressure and ECG will continue to be monitored until the levels begin returning to normal. The actual exercise time is usually between 6 and 12 minutes but the total time for complete the exercise stress test is about 45 to 60 minutes. (Time for different type of stress test varies).
