Heart health is an important aspect of your overall health and well-being. Your doctor will check your blood pressure and lab work during an annual physical exam or more frequently. If you show any symptoms that indicate your heart may not be functioning properly, you may be referred to a cardiologist in Singapore.
A cardiologist uses diagnostic testing to determine the heart’s ability to pump and move blood and oxygen throughout your body. Hearing you need a heart check up Singapore may be confusing or scary, so understanding the aim of the tests can help put you at ease.
Let’s take you through some of the different tests to help diagnose heart diseases and conditions.
Cardiac Stress Test
First on our list is the cardiac stress test. This test shows the way your heart works during physical activity. Also known as exercise stress test, it is designed to detect test issues with blood flow when the heart is pumping faster and harder than the norm.
The test can be undertaken while walking on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike. Or you may be given a drug to mimic the effects of exercise while in a seated, resting position. You may undergo a stress test to diagnose if coronary artery disease is causing damage or disease in your coronary arteries.
Coronary CT Angiogram
With the coronary CT angiogram, advanced CT tech and injected dye are leveraged to take high-resolution 3D images of your heart. The 3D pictures of the beating heart and major blood vessels are used to identify coronary artery blockages. From the 3D images captured while going for a heart checkup Singapore, your healthcare team can see if there are plaque or calcium deposits in the arteries.
Echocardiogram
Then there is the echocardiogram, which you can expect when going for a heart checkup Singapore. This is a common test to see your heart beating and pumping blood. The images from an echocardiogram can help detect heart disease, congenital heart defects before birth and check for issues with the valves or chambers of your heart.
There are several types of echocardiograms you should know about; including transthoracic, transesophageal, doppler, and stress. Transthoracic is the standard type of echocardiogram that converts sound wave echoes into moving images while transesophageal provides more detailed images than the standard echocardiogram. Be sure to do your homework before going for a heart checkup Singapore.
