What is stress echocardiography?

Consultant cardiologist Dr. Navtej S. Chahal explains what a stress echocardiography is.

Stress Echocardiography is a commonly used test to principally assess the blood supply to the heart muscle, and therefore give us an idea as to whether or not there may be any blockages in the coronary arteries. It uses ultrasound waves as in conventional echocardiography and resting images of the heart muscle are acquired. Sometimes we inject a mild contrast agent to improve the quality of the pictures…

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We will usually ask you to exercise on a treadmill machine to increase your heart rate to a certain threshold. You will be fully monitored during that procedure with an electric cardiogram looking at your heart rhythm and also have your blood pressure measured frequently during the test. Once you have achieved a certain heart rate and we are happy that you have been adequately stressed, we will stop the treadmill and ask you to lie down quickly on a couch to have the ultrasound images of the heart repeated, and this will give us an idea of the function of the heart under those circumstances.

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About the cardiologists

The Many Beats team consists of not one, but four highly experienced consultant cardiologists

Dr Navtej Chahal

Consultant Cardiologist

PhD FESC FACC

Navtej is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He also consults at the London Northwest NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton Hospital, London having qualified from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Medical School in 2001. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London

Dr Navin Chandra

Consultant Cardiologist

MD, MRCP, MBBS, BSc

Navin is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He is also a Consultant Cardiologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He qualified from Guy’s, King’s & St. Thomas’s in 2004...

Dr Ahmed Elghamaz

Consultant Cardiologist

FRCP, MB BCh

Ahmed is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He also consults at Northwick Park Hospital and London North West Healthcare University Hospitals NHS Trust and is an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He completed his junior…

Dr Joban Sehmi

Consultant Cardiologist

BSc, MBBS, MRCP, PhD

Joban is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. His NHS practice is at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS trust. He sees patients privately at Spire in Bushey and Bishops Wood Hospital in Northwood. He trained in medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ medical school and qualified in 2003 with numerous academic awards…