i am waiting to have a stress test for my heart as i have clogged arteries. what can i expect? thanks.

Just out of curiosity, how did you find out your arteries were clogged? I thought usually they would do the stress test before they did the angio. How old are you?

i'm 59. i had an ekg as part of a pre-op and the g.p. called me in to tell me.

Hi fellow Canadian. I didn't know an EKG could detect blocked arteries. I had a nuclear stress test (mibi) to see if any arteries were blocked (thank goodness they weren't). My test was done in 2 parts (same day). I was injected with dye and had a scan. The only uncomfortable part about that, was I had to hold my hand up in back of my head. The second part of the test was on the treadmill, when my heart reached a certain rate, they injected me again. I was really scared to have the test, but it wasn't so terrible. Did you have an echogram as well?

the only thing i have had is an ekg, electrocardiagram and if that can't detect clogged arteriesmaybe my g.p.was mistaken. still waiting to hear about going to cardiologist and stress test. thanks for the help.

An EKG CAN however detect the presence of a totally blocked artery that resulted in a heart attack and some dead cardiac tissue.
Also there are some distinct patterns that suggest ischemia, and thus blockages.

bonzer,
Make sure they do a NUCLEAR stress test. Anything less is not worth your time or expense. It involves injecting a radioactive marker that is photographed after exertion. Areas with no marker are areas with interrupted blood supply: a blockage.

thank you lenin

Lenin - thanks for the info - I knew that a cardiogram could detect a heart attack, but I didn't know about blocked arteries. My cardiograms always come back abnormal - but as my cardio explained, not abnormal for me. Just to be on the safe side, I had a stress test, nuclear test and echogram 11 months ago.