I had a cardiologist say women's stress test are harder to read because of the breast matter or issue. Is this true please explain

[eimaj]

I had a cardiologist tell me that stress test on women is harder to read because of breast matter or tissue. Is this true?  

[PikaPika88]

What ever the result said.....  My cardio said, for women they're all "artefact"!   Then why sent the women to have Nuclear Stress Test or Echo?   Unfortunately, the next echo turned out that I've already had myocardial infarction.  The test resulted "artefact" or my cardio judged "artefact"?

[Douglas Bogart, MD]

Stress tests in women do have several issues.  First the ECG in response to exercise may show a non-specific abnormality in women that is not seen in men and hence some type of imaging modality is frequently needed such as nuclear or echo.
Breast tissue may make this imaging harder as the echo beam or the radio-isotope has to travel through this tissue and it can make the interpretation more difficult and at times can lead to mis-interpretation.