The coronary arteries are the small blood vessels that supply blood to your heart muscle. They are very important blood vessels because they allow your heart muscle to function normally.

If your coronary arteries become narrowed, the amount of blood that can pass through them is reduced. This can cause problems for your heart muscle. If they become severely narrowed it can even put you at risk of heart attacks.

The most common reason for doing an exercise stress echo is to help to asses whether your coronary arteries can supply enough blood to your heart muscle during exercise.

In ACHD the coronary arteries can become narrowed after certain types of surgery like the arterial switch operation. Also as we all get older we become more likely to develop narrowing of the coronary arteries from fat or cholesterol building up in the wall of the arteries.

Less common reasons for doing an exercise stress echo would include getting more information about heart valve function during exercise.

It is basically a combination of an echo scan and a treadmill exercise test. You’ve probably had both of these things done before, but maybe not at the same time.

To start with you will have standard echo pictures taken to look at your heart muscle function while you are resting.

You will then walk or run on the treadmill while your ECG is monitored. Once you finish exercising you will get back onto the echo bed as quickly as possible and a repeat set of echo pictures will be taken.

This allows a comparison to be made of your heart muscle function at rest and with exercise. Normally heart muscle squeezes harder with exercise than it does at rest. If part of your heart muscle doesn’t pump harder with exercise, this can be a sign of important coronary artery narrowing.

The risk of major complications is very low, it’s really no more than the risk of exercising in general. 

Your ECG will be monitored carefully during the exercise phase and the test will be stopped if there are any concerning signs. It may also be stopped if you get symptoms like chest pain, major breathlessness or light headedness.

It’s best to wear comfortable clothing and shoes for walking / running on the treadmill. It’s also best not to have a full stomach when you come for the test.

Sometimes you may need to stop some of your medicines before the test – the medical team will tell you if this is the case.