Chest x-rays: The chest x-ray shows the heart size and shape and disease in your lungs or other chest structures.

EKG, ECG, or Electrocardiogram: This simple, painless test measures how your heart is beating and whether there has been any damage to your heart muscle. Electrical wires with suction cups are placed on your chest, arms, and legs. Then a machine records the activity of your heart and displays the electrical activity on a screen. Your doctor can tell from the patterns how your heart is working.

Cardioversion: Use of low voltage electric shock to stop an abnormally fast heart rhythm through paddles, or pads placed on the chest surface.

Holter Monitor: A device in which the electrocardiogram is recorded on a magnetic tape over a 24-hour period while you go about your normal activities. The device consists of wire electrodes taped to your skin, and a recorder, which you wear. This recorder tapes only your heart rhythm - not other sounds or conversation. This test is especially useful in diagnosing cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms), and causes for symptoms such as dizziness and/or fainting.

Event Monitoring: Event monitors are special recorders, which can be worn for many days. They are applied and removed by the patient. When symptoms such as dizziness or irregular heart beats occur, the patient presses a button, which activates a recording of the heart rhythm. The information can be transmitted over the telephone to the doctor's office. This type of testing is especially useful when symptoms are rare, or when they have not been able to be recorded with a Holter monitor.

Echocardiogram, or ECHO: It is a safe and painless test that helps doctors diagnose a variety of heart problems, such as, extent of damage to the heart muscle, how efficiently your heart is pumping (ejection fraction, E.F.), and heart valve problems. An echocardiogram shows the structure and movement of your heart muscle. While you are resting, sound waves bounce off your heart and are converted into a picture on a screen. An ejection fraction of 50% or more is normal. An ejection fraction is measured at rest and sometimes with exercise.

A stress echocardiogram is done under conditions that "stress" your heart. This can be done with exercise or with a drug infusion through an intravenous line. The stress test shows whether your heart pumps normally during exercise and your coronary arteries can meet your heart's increased demand for blood.

TEE (Transesophageal Echocardiogram): A type of echocardiography utilized to evaluate specific cardiac conditions; the need for the device to be placed closer to the heart to produce clearer images. It involves insertion of a small flexible tube into the esophagus, which produces ultrasonic images of the heart. Fasting is required prior to the exam and sedation is usually utilized during the test.

Doppler Echocardiography: The Doppler Echo uses sound waves to map the blood flow within the heart or peripheral blood vessels. This test is also done by placing a transducer on your chest.

Tilt Table Testing: It is a simple test that tries to recreate your symptoms; it checks how changes in body position affect your heart rate and blood pressure. You are placed on a table that can be tilted up and down. Straps over your upper body and thighs hold you in place.

Treadmill Exercise Stress Test: A diagnostic procedure used to determine heart response to physical exertion (stress). You'll simply walk on a treadmill (or, sometimes, pedal a bicycle) while your heart rate, blood pressure, and ECG are monitored. You will begin walking on the treadmill at a slow speed and slope. The speed and slope are gradually increased and the response of your heart to exercise is monitored. It shows how long you are able to exercise, whether you have symptoms, and whether there are abnormal changes on the ECG, which may signify blockages or narrowing in the arteries surrounding your heart. One pitfall of the exercise stress test is that many women cannot exercise enough for accurate test results. Additionally, this test has a false-positive rate in women of 15% to 40%. Also known as an exercise tolerance test, or exercise ECG. Sometimes, your heart will be monitored with an echocardiogram to get a better picture of how it is pumping; this is called a stress echo.

Nuclear scan/cardiac perfusion imaging: This diagnostic tool is especially useful if a standard exercise test is inconclusive or your doctor suspects that results may be falsely positive or negative. A small amount of weakly radioactive material (Thallium, or Cardiolite/Technetium) is injected into a vein while you're resting or exercising (stressing the heart). If you are unable to exercise, or your physician may prefer to use an IV drug, such as, Persantine, Adenosine, or Dobutamine to "stress" the heart, rather than have you exercise on the treadmill for your nuclear test. The weakly radioactive material is temporarily absorbed by your heart muscle. Then, a scanning camera takes pictures of your heart. The radioactive material allows the camera to detect parts of the heart that aren't getting enough blood because of narrowed, blocked, or damaged arteries (i.e. coronary artery disease).

MUGA (Multiple Gaited Acquisition), or Multigated Ventriculograms: This is a test in which a small amount of your blood is taken and combined with a small amount of radioactive tracer. The blood is injected back into a vein; the blood flow is observed as it goes through your heart. This test may be done with exercise or at rest. The results of this test provide important information on the pumping ability of your heart.