Stress test from cardiologists?
Cardiologists like to perform the so-called stress test. Far from me to criticize this but it has been shown[the summary below shows in this direction but there are other articles about this] that checking an ECG [EKG] while bothering patients with simple mental arithmetic and some irritating questions might give far more information than running on a bicycle.
Maybe cardiologists could switch their routines?
Investigators examining the link between sudden cardiac death and psychological stress recruited 18 volunteers with implantable defibrillators. Ventricular tachycardia was easier to induce and harder to terminate in stressed volunteers than in relaxed ones, even though the “stress” in the experiment—simple mental arithmetic and some irritating questions—was minimal (Circulation 2000;101:158-64). Lethal arrhythmias may explain high rates of sudden death among survivors of war and natural disasters, the investigators conclude.