Patients often want the most accurate and least invasive test to evaluate their heart. Some consider the exercise in stress tests as invasive. Perhaps that is a part of the problem. Humor aside, here are some modalities for heart evaluation:

1. 64 Slice CT Scan:  This Machine can scan 64 slices simultaneously at half a Millimeter apart. The result is Images close in detail to angiography.  They will soon be widely used in Emergency Departments to rule out Heart Disease, Pulmonary Embolism ( lung clot ) and Aortic Dissection ( tearing/seperation of the Aortic wall ), the three most deadly causes of Chest Pain.

2. Stress test: Minimally invasive(injection of radioactive tracer). You have to run on a treadmill.  it tells you if you have a heart vessel narrowing severe enough to have an angiogram.

3. Angiogram: Quite invasive, but safe when done by cardiologists with experience. This test gives you
a photograph of your coronary vessels. It tells you whether, you have to have a bypass, angioplasty
(balloon to open the vessel, followed by a stent to keep it open), or neither.

4.  Echo Doppler:  This is an ultrasound image of the heart, showing motion, wall thickness, valve function, and overall size of the heart.

5.  Holter or Event Monitor:  Records heart beat tracing either continuously or during symptoms, to allow  detection and treatment of arrythmias ( irregular rhythms ).