There is still a role for exercise testing in prognostic cardiology

Stress echocardiography is a non-invasive test that is used to assess myocardial function and possible ischemic changes with increased cardiac workload; it can also assess the distribution of blood supply, as well as cardiac muscle viability and ability to perform normal function. Stress echocardiography is an established technique for the assessment of patients with suspected and established coronary artery disease (CAD). [1] It has been proposed that combining stress imaging may improve the accuracy of the exercise electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis. In the ischemic cascade, myocardial regional wall abnormalities occur even before significant ECG changes. [1,2]