Stress Echo

At the Cardiology Department of Affidea, the specialized Stress Echo examination is conducted, both diastolic and with exercise.

Diastolic Stress Echo: This examination aims to investigate the cause of dyspnea, a symptom whose cause is often difficult to determine using other methods.

Exercise Echo (stress echo with exercise): This test involves a treadmill or a supine bicycle exercise test and requires a high level of expertise, experience, and know-how, as well as the corresponding equipment (special treadmill and ergometric supine bicycle).

It has multiple advantages over the pharmacological stress test (with dobutamine) that is widely performed, as it involves actual exercise and not a simulation of it. Additionally, it does not have the potential side effects of the medication or the often unpleasant venipuncture for the patient.

Moreover, besides investigating the presence of coronary artery disease, when done with a supine bicycle, it has many other indications, including:

• Assessing the severity of valvular diseases

• Revealing symptoms in severe valvular diseases

• Evaluating cardiomyopathies (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy)

• Assessing the patient's true functional status