TMT(Stress Test)
Diagnostic Centres have TMT machine. It is very common to find the heart patients who have normal ECG. The ECGs are taken at rest when the heart is beating at its lowest rate. In some of cases the patient complains that at the time of rest there is no pain in the chest, the angina symptoms would only come when they increase the heart rate, while doing some physical exertion like walking.
In this condition, where we need a TMT test. The patients might gradually increase their heart rate, thus increasing the blood requirement of the heart muscles. Simultaneously ECG records are taken.
Patients have to physically bring to bear for this test which uses a computerised machine. The continuous ECG monitoring during the exercise would reflect to the blood and oxygen deficit in the muscles of the heart during the exercise.
TMT test is also called as Exercise Stress Test, Computerised Stress Test or simply Stress test. It is the very easy, popular and common test performed on heart patients to determine the severity of the heart disease. Taken at an interval, this test can also show the improvement or deterioration of patient’s angina.
A negative TMT or Stress Test is declared when the patient can reach a certain heart rate without showing any ECG changes. This rate is known as target heart rate and it is also calculated by a formula (Target Heart Rate = 220 – age of patient). If this rate is reached by the patient without producing any ECG changes, though the TMT can be called negative, but it would not mean that the blockage is zero. It is meant only by the person performing the test probably has a blockage of less than 70%.