“Can a stress test show a blockage in my heart?”

It's possible. Some stress tests are more sensitive than others. Even a normal stress test doesn't guarantee you have no blockage. Depending on the results, it can help risk-stratify your chest pain.

An exercise stress test, typically a treadmill, can. But it has a high false positive especially in females. Negative tests tend to show that the heart is normal. There are better tests to show blockage: 1. stress echo looking at heart wall motion before and after exercise, 2. Nuclear myocardial perfusion scans - usually done in a hospital. The last 2 tests tend to have an 88% accuracy.

Thanks,

Danelo Cañete, MD

A nuclear cardiac stress test won’t show the actual blockages like an invasive coronary catherization. However, it will show if there is diminished blood flow to the left heart muscle which indirectly reflects a blockage in one of the arteries that supplies blood flow to the heart muscle.