Stress electrocardiography testing Helps detect coronary artery disease

Stress electrocardiography (sECG) or treadmill stress testing is a well validated noninvasive diagnostic modality available to clinicians at low cost yet providing valuable functional data for coronary artery disease (CAD) diagnosis.

The advances in cardiac imaging as well as the existing limitations of Stress electrocardiography testing, appears less favored worldwide as reflected in some recent guideline updates.

However, in a recent review in Indian Heart Journal, the past present and future of stress electrocardiography provides a viewpoint on where it stands in coronary artery disease evaluation and if it will remain relevant as a diagnostic modality. The researchers also provide perspectives on how stress electrocardiography can co-exist with other modalities such as calcium scoring.

Stress electrocardiography is a widely studied, well validated, low-cost, low-risk technique for evaluation of coronary artery disease. It is also currently used for exercise prescription, functional capacity, dyspnea assessment, objective assessment of symptoms and stress hemodynamics for valvular disease assessment.

However in the current era, its use continues to decline given various advances in imaging. An ideal strategy would be to consider the hybrid strategy of 'calcium treadmill test' to serve as gatekeeper for diagnosis and prognosis of such diseases.

Hence, the researchers concluded that this could be a cost effective initial approach to suspect coronary artery disease and help in their diagnostic evaluation particularly in India. So the authors ended by saying "Stress electrocardiography in our opinion is alive and well and is not ready for its "swan song."