Areas of Practice
Exercise Stress echocardiography
An exercise stress test is used to determine how well your heart responds during times when it’s working its hardest.. It is usually performed to look for evidence of narrowings in the coronary arteries, which carry oxygen and nutrition for the heart itself.
During the test, you’ll be asked to exercise, typically on a treadmill, while you’re hooked up to an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine.
When you are referred for stress testing to check the heart rate and rhythm under stress, but not to check for narrowing of the arteries, we may not take ultrasound images.
Dobutamine stress echocardiography
If you’re not able to exercise on the treadmill for an exercise stress test, we may suggest we use the intravenous medicine dobutamine to make the heart beat harder and faster, as if you were exercising, even though you’re just lying quietly on the bed.
Echocardiogram
An echocardiogram is a detailed check of the size and working of all the heart chambers and valves. We use ultrasound waves transmitted and received from a probe on the outside of the chest.
Holter monitors
A Holter monitor is a small, battery-powered medical device that measures your heart’s activity, such as rate and rhythm. We may ask you to use one if they need more information about how your heart functions than a routine electrocardiogram (ECG) can give them.
24 hour Holter monitoring is a continuous test to record your heart’s rate and rhythm for 24 hours. You will wear the Holter monitor for 12 to 48 hours as you go about your normal daily routine. This device has electrodes and electrical leads exactly like a regular ECG, but it has fewer leads.
It can pick up your heart’s rate and rhythm, and there is a button to press if you notice an abnormal heart beat, chest pain, or other symptoms. Then we can look carefully at that particular part of the recording.