Hello, welcome everybody, this is doctor Bolad, board certified physician in cardiology, interventional
cardiology and internal medicine, certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
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my subscribers, thank you for your continued support. Today I will talk to you about the
top 5 cardiac tests we commonly perform to assess heart health. The commonest test is
the electrocardiogram, commonly abbreviated as the ECG, and in the United states abbreviated
as EKG. The ECG is the most important test for interpretation of the cardiac rhythm,
conduction system abnormalities, and the detection of myocardial ischemia which is reduced blood
supply to the muscle of the heart. The ECG is also used in the evaluation of other types
of cardiac abnormalities including valvular heart disease, certain types of heart muscle
abnormalities referred to as cardiomyopathies, diagnosis of inflammation of the covering
of the heart referred to as pericarditis, and heart disease secondary to high blood
pressure. The ECG grid is a plot of voltage on the vertical axis against time on the horizontal
axis. The electrodes are connected to a galvanometer that records a potential difference. The needle
of the ECG is deflected a given distance depending upon the voltage measured.
The second test is the Transthoracic Echocardiogram, generally referred to as echocardiogram or
echo. Transthoracic echocardiography is a widely available, reproducible, noninvasive
imaging modality for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of cardiac anatomy and function.
Transthoracic echocardiography provides thin slice imaging of the heart. Comprehensive
echocardiographic examination typically involves imaging the heart from multiple viewing orientations.
Transthoracic echocardiography is often used as a first-line cardiac imaging modality,
owing to its wide availability, noninvasiveness, and lack of radiation exposure.
The third test is Cardiac Stress Testing which is an important diagnostic and prognostic
tool in the evaluation and management of patients who are either known or suspected to suffer
from heart disease. The most commonly used and widely available stress testing modalities
are exercise electrocardiography and pharmacologic stress combined with imaging such as echocardiography
imaging or radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging. The choice of stress testing modality
depends on many factors, like for example the ability to perform adequate exercise or
whether the resting ECG is normal. Cardiac stress testing is performed to evaluate non-invasively
the coronary arteries of patients with symptoms of angina, to evaluate valvular heart disease
for the hemodynamic effect of the severity of the aortic or mitral valve narrowing, to
evaluate heart rate response to exercise and to risk stratify patients before a planned
elective non-cardiac surgery under general anesthesia.
The fourth test is heart catheterization, also called cardiac catheterization, also
referred to as “cardiac cath," is an invasive procedure that we perform to evaluate certain
heart problems to understand how the patient’s heart is working. Common reasons for performing
this test are to evaluate the coronary arteries after having angina or an abnormal stress
test, or to evaluate abnormal heart valve conditions such as narrowed or leaky heart
valves, or to evaluate an enlarged or weak heart.
The fifth test is cardiac imaging such as cardiac computed tomography (abbreviated as
CT scan) and magnetic resonance imaging (abbreviated as MRI). CT scan uses radiation while MRI
tests do not. These imaging tests emerged as options for non-invasive evaluation of
the heart in clinical practice. These tests can be supplemented by the use of contrast
to evaluate the arterial system and the chambers of the heart and would then be referred to
as cardiac CT angiography or cardiac magnetic resonance imaging with contrast. These tests
are used to evaluate cardiac muscle disease, heart valve disease, aortic disease, and disease
of the pericardium which is the covering of the heart.
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heart health, thanks for watching, and talk to you soon.