There are many investigations for coronary artery disease, beginning with the simple exercise treadmill test, which can be done on the day of your appointment.
We also have more sophisticated tests, such as the CT coronary angiogram (a non-invasive assessment of the anatomy of your coronary arteries) or the stress cardiac MRI scan (a non-invasive assessment of the ability of your coronary arteries to supply blood to the heart).
Sometimes, we require cardiac catheterisation to fully understand the function of the heart. This involves a local anaesthetic procedure, which takes only half an hour, is performed whilst your consultant is chatting to you and gives us the most detailed level of information on the anatomy of your heart.
We can also use a pressure sensor wire to establish whether coronary narrowings are obstructing blood flow and/or intracoronary ultrasound (IVUS) to get more detailed information on the nature of any narrowings within your coronary arteries.