“Can a stress test show a blockage in my heart?”
My cardiologist wants me to have a stress test because of my chest pain, and I'm wondering about what it will actually show. Will this show any blockages in my heart?
4 Answers
CardiologistChestPain
Stress testing does indirectly show if there is a blockage in the heart arteries. There are a variety of stress tests, when you walk on a treadmill, and then have imaging done either with echocardiography or via nuclear imaging. I tell my patients, that it can pick up coronary artery disease but still there are 5-10% chances of being false positive or false negative results.

Mark Rasak
Cardiologist
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
Thanks,
Danelo Cañete, MD