To get complete information about your condition, you may need more than one test. Most of them are done outside the body and are painless. This test can show abnormal heartbeats, heart muscle damage, blood flow problems in the coronary arteries, and heart enlargement. Some older women may not be able to exercise due to arthritis or another condition. In such cases, a stress test can be done without exercise by using a medicine that increases blood flow to the heart muscle and shows if there are any problems in that flow.
Echocardiography changes sound waves into pictures that show the heart's size, shape, and movement.
The sound waves also can be used to see how much blood is pumped out by the heart when it contracts. A nuclear scan shows the working of the heart muscle as blood flows through the heart. A small amount of radioactive material is injected into a vein, usually in the arm, and a camera then records how much is taken up by the heart muscle. A thin, flexible tube, or catheter, is threaded through an artery of an arm or leg up into the heart. A fluid is then injected into the tube, allowing the heart and blood vessels to be filmed as the heart pumps.