Coronary Artery Disease: Diagnosis

Your health care provider will take into account several factors in diagnosing coronary artery disease (CAD), such as family history, symptoms, and risk factors. In addition, there are several diagnostic tests that are helpful when used together to diagnose the condition.

• EKG (Electrocardiogram). This measures how fast your heart is beating and looks for an irregular heart rhythm. It also determines if your heart walls are thicker than normal and whether or not you've previously had a heart attack.
• Stress Testing. In a stress test, you perform a physical activity, such as jogging on a treadmill, to increase the speed of your heartbeat. This helps determine how well your heart performs when it must work. If you have difficulty with exercise or become short of breath easily, it may be a sign of CAD. Learn about a cardiac stress test using medicine.
• Echocardiography. This test uses sound waves to produce an image of the heart, showing how well it's working. It can help determine which areas of the heart are having problems and help identify any damage to the heart.
• Chest X-Ray. An x-ray can show heart enlargement, fluid in the lungs and lung disease.
• Blood Tests. Blood tests check the levels of certain fats, cholesterol, sugar and proteins in your blood. Above-average levels may be a sign of CAD.
• Coronary Angiography and Cardiac Catheterization. A thin, flexible tube called a catheter is put into a blood vessel in your arm, upper thigh or neck and threaded to your heart to study the interior of coronary arteries. Using coronary angiography, a dye that can be seen with x-rays is injected into the blood through the tip of the catheter. The dye allows your doctor to see blood flow to the heart muscle. It causes little to no pain.

This information has been adapted from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.