How is cardiovascular disease diagnosed?

Depending on symptoms, cardiovascular disease is diagnosed starting with a clinical history and physical exam. Symptoms such as angina, decreased exercise tolerance, shortness of breath, intermittent claudication, syncope (fainting), etc. can signal that additional testing is needed to determine the likelihood of cardiovascular disease. Presence of known risk factors such as smoking, diabetes mellitus, obesity, hypertension, family history of CVD, and dyslipidemia all raise the probability of CVD. Laboratory diagnostic tests such as electrocardiogram, blood tests (including cardiac enzymes), stress test, and cardiac imaging (MIBI scan/cardiac CT scan, etc) may also be warranted.^[1]