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Our Services / Stress Testing

Stress Testing

Cardiac stress testing evaluates your heart to look for signs of disease. You may need stress testing if you have symptoms of heart problems such as shortness of breath or chest pain. The highly skilled team of cardiovascular specialists at ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center in Dearborn, Detroit, and Trenton, Michigan, provides stress testing at their state-of-the-art diagnostic and imaging center in Trenton. To schedule a consultation to discuss stress testing with the cardiovascular specialist, call or book an appointment online today.


Stress Testing Q & A

What is stress testing?

Stress testing is a diagnostic test that evaluates how well your heart works when it’s pumping hard. Increasing the pumping of your heart helps find heart problems not seen when your heart is pumping at its normal rate.

ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center is a state-of-the-art practice that performs many types of stress testing to evaluate the structure and function of your heart.

Who needs stress testing?

Your primary care provider or cardiovascular specialist at ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center explains to you why you need stress testing. Your provider may recommend the procedure if you have shortness of breath or chest pain.

Your symptoms may indicate coronary disease. The team may also recommend stress testing to see how well your heart works.

What are the types of stress testing?

The team at ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center offers many types of stress testing to fit a wide range of needs and suspected heart conditions. 

Some of the stress testing available includes:

Exercise stress testing

During an exercise stress test, the team has you walk on a treadmill to increase your heart rate and blood pressure. They use a blood pressure cuff and an electrocardiogram (EKG) to monitor and assess heart function.

Persantine® stress testing

For patients unable to exercise, ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center offers Persantine (dipyridamole) stress testing. Persantine is a medication that increases blood flow through the heart without having to exercise. 

The team also performs this test on patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a left bundle branch block (blockage in the electrical pathways in the heart), and those taking beta blockers (medications that lower the heart rate).

Dobutamine stress testing

For patients who are unable to exercise because of asthma or some other breathing disorder, the team at ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center performs a dobutamine stress test.

Dobutamine is a medication that increases heart rate and blood flow.

Echo stress testing

Echo stress testing is an ultrasound stress test, providing images of your heart when under stress. During this test, the team evaluates the structure and function of your heart before and after increasing heart rate.

ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center offers an exercise echo stress test and a dobutamine echo stress test.

To find out more about stress testing at ARK Cardiovascular & Arrhythmia Center, call the office nearest you, or book an appointment online today.