I just saw this on another website...

Stress echo
Risks for a stress echocardiogram include dizziness, heart attack, low blood pressure, shortness of breath, nausea, and irregular heart rhythm


I am scheduled for this test on Tuesday. I was worried before. Now I am REALLY scared!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't worry about the extremely rare side effect of a heart attack. The test is to help prevent that!! The doctor can see how your heart reacts with exercise, if she/he sees it going too fast or not functioning properly, she'll/he'll stop it. I only lasted a couple minutes before my heart rate went up to 200 and then he stopped the test. I also got shortness of breath because it was a big workout for me, but that went away after I settled down a bit. I was dizzy because I went from lying down to walking fast to stopping and lying down again. It's called a stress test because it DOES put stress on you, but it's all monitored the whole time, if the doctor sees anything getting bad, she'll/he'll stop it.

Don't worry! I had an echocardiogram and stress test in one morning, was freaking out over the stress test, and felt so silly afterward! The worst part for me definitely turned out to be getting the IV (I had a nuclear stress test) because I had never had one before, and that even wasn't that bad. You are being watched carefully the WHOLE time and whoever is administering the test will stop it whenever you want.

Thanks so much to both of you for responding!!



Needless to say, I need to chill :)

However, it didnt help when I read on this site that risks of a stress test are heart attack and irresgular heartbeat!!! Man...those are my biggest fears!!!!

I also read that for women especially, standard stress tests are useless and that a nuclear stress test should always be done. Any merit to this??