Pharmacologic stress testing for coronary artery disease diagnosis

What is it about?

Pharmacologic stress testing is used in 30-40% of nuclear scans to diagnose coronary artery disease when exercise stress testing is not feasible or advised. Reasons to use medication instead of exercise include the inability to reach the target heart rate or workload on a treadmill and conditions like aortic stenosis or a recent heart attack. Pharmacologic stress nuclear scanning is similarly accurate to exercise stress nuclear scanning for diagnosing coronary artery disease. But patients needing medication stress testing have more health conditions and slightly higher risk after a normal test than with exercise. Medication side effects are common but generally minor. Doctors should understand proper pharmacologic stress testing use as it increasingly helps diagnose coronary artery disease in older patients.

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Photo by Jair Lázaro on Unsplash

Photo by Jair Lázaro on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This article is important because pharmacologic stress testing is increasingly used but often misunderstood. The article provides guidance on proper patient selection, expected diagnostic accuracy, prognostic information, and safety of pharmacologic stress testing. This information can help providers optimize the pharmacologic stress testing to diagnose coronary artery disease in patients who cannot adequately exercise. With an aging population, the use of these tests will continue growing, making provider understanding of appropriate use and execution more crucial.

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