When it comes to heart health, knowledge is power. One important measure is how well your heart functions when it’s working hard — and a stress test is a noninvasive diagnostic procedure that measures your heart’s response to physical activity or simulated exercise.
By monitoring your heart rate, blood pressure, and electrical activity during controlled exertion, a stress test helps doctors uncover issues that might not be apparent at rest. Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute use stress testing to evaluate cardiovascular health and guide treatment decisions.
If your doctor has recommended a stress test, here’s a closer look at how it works and some of the most common reasons you might need one.
A stress test, or exercise stress testing, gives your medical team the opportunity to observe how well your heart performs under physical exertion, usually through monitored exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike. In some cases, if physical exercise isn’t possible or sufficient, we may use medications that simulate exercise’s effects on your heart instead.
We place sensors on your body that track your heart’s electrical activity via electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, and symptoms as your cardiovascular system works harder. The goal is to reveal problems with blood flow, rhythm, and heart function that may not show up when your heart is at rest.
Stress tests are a widely used and effective method to evaluate patients with known or suspected heart disease or other concerning cardiovascular symptoms. Four of the most common reasons we recommend stress testing are:
A stress test can help evaluate chest pain or discomfort, particularly when the pain may be related to reduced blood flow to your heart. Not all chest pain is cardiac in origin, and a stress test helps determine whether your heart muscle is receiving enough oxygenated blood during exertion — especially if your symptoms arise with activity and improve with rest.
A stress test can also help distinguish between heart-related pain, such as pain caused by coronary artery disease, and pain that may have a non-cardiac source. By observing your heart under controlled, increasing workload, we can assess how well your heart tolerates stress and whether you need further evaluation or treatment.
If you find yourself unusually short of breath during physical activity or unable to exercise as expected for your age and fitness level, a stress test can help determine why. Shortness of breath with exertion can be a sign of cardiovascular limitations, including issues with blood flow, heart rhythm irregularities, or diminished pumping capacity.
A stress test provides a structured way to evaluate how your heart and lungs respond to increasing levels of activity. This helps us understand whether your symptoms stem from cardiac causes or if other systems may be involved, allowing for targeted diagnostic follow-up and care.
Sometimes, we recommend a stress test after initial heart evaluations — such as an ECG at rest, an echocardiogram, or imaging study — reveal abnormalities or inconclusive results. For example, if a resting ECG suggests reduced blood flow, a stress test can provide additional information.
If you’ve already been diagnosed with heart disease or you have significant risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, a family history of early heart disease, diabetes, or prior heart events, a stress test may be part of your routine monitoring.
Regular stress testing helps track how well your heart tolerates activity and whether treatment strategies like medication changes or lifestyle interventions are effective. It can also help identify changes over time, prompting adjustments to your care plan before symptoms worsen.
A stress test offers valuable insight into how well your heart performs when pushed beyond resting conditions, making it a good option to evaluate symptoms like chest pain and clarify past test results. Getting a stress test is an opportunity to take proactive steps toward better cardiovascular care, and our team is here to guide you each step of the way.
Call us at 201-866-7000 to book an appointment at one of our offices in Elizabeth, Lakewood, Paramus, and Secaucus, New Jersey, or send us a message online to learn more.
