ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Cardiac stress testing is an integral part of clinical cardiology.The safe performance of high-quality stress testing with imaging techniques has led to an increase in the number of stress procedures in recent years. This has prompted the development of national guidelines and appropriateness criteria for cardiac stress testing and imaging techniques. Although the particular techniques of exercise electrocardiographic (ECG) stress testing, stress echocardiography, and myocardial perfusion imaging are discussed in more detail in other chapters of this text, this chapter focuses on the relative advantages and limitations of each technique to ensure that the appropriate test is performed on the appropriate patient.
