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Stress Testing
If the baseline EKG is relatively normal, then monitoring the EKG
tracing while the patient exercises may uncover electrical changes
that may indicate the presence of coronary artery disease. There
are a variety of testing protocols used to determine whether the
exercise intensity is high enough to prove that the heart is normal.
Some patients are unable to exercise on a treadmill test, but they
can still undergo cardiac stress testing by using intravenous
medication that causes the heart to work harder.
Stress testing is done under the supervision of medical personnel
because of the potential of provoking angina, shortness of breath,
abnormal heart rhythms, and heart attack.
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Echocardiography
Used with or without exercise, echocardiography can assess how
the heart works. Using sound waves to generate an image, a
cardiologist can evaluate many aspects of the heart.
Echocardiograms can examine the structure of the heart including
the thickness of the heart muscle, the septum (the tissues that
separate the four heart chambers from each other) and the
pericardial sac (the outside lining of the heart).
The test can indirectly assess blood flow to parts of the heart
muscle. If there is decreased blood flow, then segments of the hear
wall may not beat as strongly as adjacent heart muscle. These wal
motion abnormalities signal the potential for coronary artery
disease.
The echocardiogram can also assess the efficiency of the heart by
measuring ejection fraction. Normally when the heart beats, it
pushes more than 60 % of the blood in the ventricle out to the body.
Many diseases of the heart, including coronary artery disease, can
decrease this percentage (the ejection fraction).
Perfusion Studies
Radioactive chemicals like thallium or technetium can be injected
into a vein and their uptake measured in heart muscle cells.
Abnormally decreased uptake can signify decreased blood flow to
parts of the heart because of coronary artery narrowing. This test
may be used when the patients baseline EKG is not normal and is
less reliable when used to monitor a stress test.
Antibiotic Use
Tied to Crohn's,
Ulcerative Colitis
eople who are prescribed a large
number of antibiotics tend to have
a higher risk of inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD), a new study finds,
providing more evidence that antibiotics
may be disturbing bacteria in our
intestine.
"It's n o t th a t a n tib io tic s c a u se
inflammatory bowel disease, but that it
further supports the hypothesis that