Exercise stress testing for the family physician: Part II. Interpretation of the results

Information gained from exercise stress testing includes the heart rate and blood pressure response, the presence of symptoms or dysrhythmias, functional aerobic capacity and evidence of myocardial ischemia. Certain ST-segment patterns correlate with various degrees of ischemia. Overall, stress testing has a sensitivity and a specificity of about 70 and 75 percent, respectively, but the results are even more useful than this when considered in light of the pre- and post-test probability of coronary artery disease. Use of the exercise test score and decision-tree algorithms is helpful in clinical decision making.