Cardiac diagnostic testing: what bedside nurses need to know.

Coronary artery disease affects more than 385000 persons annually and continues to be a leading cause of death in the United States. Recently, the number of available noninvasive cardiac diagnostic tests has increased substantially. Nurses should be knowledgeable about available noninvasive cardiac diagnostic testing. The common noninvasive cardiac diagnostic testing procedures used to diagnose coronary heart disease are transthoracic echocardiography, stress testing (exercise, pharmacological, and nuclear), multidetector computed tomography, coronary artery calcium scoring (with electron beam computed tomography or computed tomographic angiography), and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. Objectives include (1) describing available methods for noninvasive assessment of coronary artery disease, (2) identifying which populations each test is most appropriate for, (3) discussing advantages and limitations of each method of testing, (4) identifying nursing considerations when caring for patients undergoing various methods of testing, and (5) describing outcome findings of various methods.