Cardiac Catheterization
Cardiac catheterization (or coronary angiogram) involves passing a thin flexible tube (catheter) into the right or left side of the heart, usually from the groin or the arm. The catheter is carefully threaded into the heart using an x-ray machine that produces real-time pictures (fluoroscopy).
Exercise Stress Test
During this test — sometimes known as a treadmill test, exercise cardiac stress test, or ECST — sensors are placed on your chest to record your heart as you exercise on a treadmill or stationary bike. Your heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and electrical activity are monitored and recorded, along with any symptoms you may experience, to look for indications of coronary artery disease and angina (that chest pain caused by a shortage of oxygen reaching the heart muscle).
Echocardiogram
Also called an “echo,” this test is done to check how the valves and chambers of your heart are working. The test can also reveal the size of the heart and the thickness and movement of the heart wall.
During an echocardiogram, a health care provider — typically a radiographer or sonographer — uses ultrasound to create a moving picture of your heart. Echocardiograms are painless and noninvasive.
Holter Monitoring or Ambulatory EKG
We use this test to record your heart’s electrical activity throughout the day. Unlike a regular EKG, which shows your heart’s activity at one moment in time, an ambulatory EKG shows us how your heart functions over a longer period of time and while you’re going about your daily routine. During the test you wear a Holter or mobile cardiac telemetry (MCT) monitor; these are portable devices with sensors that attach to your skin