DR MILES DALBY

Almost all patients undergoing any form of cardiac assessment will need some baseline blood tests.

A first line fairly routine test in patients with symptoms that could be coming from the heart or lungs

This is one of the most basic cardiac investigations and involves putting stickers (electrodes) on the skin.

Echocardiogram is harmless and performed using a transducer which is placed on the chest with jelly

A device to record the heart and be able to show the cardiologist how the heart is behaving

A series of home blood pressures performed using an automatic blood pressure monitor.

The test allows the cardiologist to see how the heart performs under load and can be useful in assessing exercise capacity

A small dose of a radioisotope is injected and images of the heart are observed using a special scanner

The stress echo looks at the functional performance of the muscle of the heart and coronary blood supply

MRI scanning provides excellent high resolution images of the structure of the heart

CT scanning of the heart has developed considerably in recent years and is now a very valuable investigation

Cardiac Catheter or diagnostic coronary angiogram, is the ‘gold standard’ test for looking at the coronary arteries.

EPS is performed in the cardiac catheter laboratory, electrodes are passed on long catheters through the veins in the groin into the heart.

Ultrasound of the carotid arteries (the arteries in the neck supplying blood to the brain)

Screening for AAA an important part of an overall cardiovascular screening program.

The heart rhythm can be monitored for short periods with a holter monitor or even a patient activated monitor