STRESS TESTS REVEAL MORE THAN CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
STRESS TESTS REVEAL MORE THAN CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH The treadmill exercise test with electrocardiogram (ECG), also known as an exercise stress test, is one of the most familiar tests in medicine. While exercise testing typically focuses on diagnosing coronary artery disease, a recent study from the Mayo Clinic finds that exercise test abnormalities, such as low functional aerobic capacity, predicted non-cardiovascular causes of death, such as cancer and cardiovascular-related deaths. These new findings are published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings . The exercise stress test is noninvasive, readily available, and provides important diagnostic information. In addition to the ECG, the test produces data on functional aerobic capacity, heart rate recovery, and chronotropic index, the standardized measure of heart rate during exercise that reflects age, resting heart rate, and fitness. "In our exercise testing cohort, non-cardiovascular deaths were more fr...