Locations:

Heart Screening

Heart screening can involve a variety of tests that can help you understand your risk of heart disease. Results from a physical exam, labs, imaging and other kinds of screenings give clues to your risk of heart attack and stroke. With this information, your healthcare provider can make a care plan to lower your risk.

What Is a Heart Screening?

A heart screening includes tests that can find heart disease before you have any symptoms of it. Test results can tell you if you’re at risk for heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) problems like a stroke or heart attack. Your healthcare provider can make a plan for reducing your risk. They may suggest you make changes to your everyday life and get certain treatments. These may include medicines or procedures.

Advertisement

Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy

Cardiac screening matters because knowing you’re at risk of heart disease gives you the chance to improve your health. If you already have heart disease, catching it at an early stage allows you to treat it before it gets worse.

When is this test performed?

Your healthcare provider may want you to have a heart health screening if someone in your biological family has heart disease. They may also offer testing if you have known risk factors for heart disease, like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

You may start having some screenings, like blood tests, at age 20. Your provider can tell you how often to repeat each test.

Types of screenings

Healthcare providers start with a physical exam when looking at your heart disease risk. Knowing your waist size and body mass index (BMI) can tell you if you have obesity, which is another risk factor for heart problems. They’ll also check your blood pressure because that’s the only way to know if it’s normal. High blood pressure typically doesn’t have symptoms, but it puts a strain on your heart and blood vessels.

Your provider may order heart screening tests, like:

  • Blood tests: Checking your cholesterol and blood sugar levels lets you know if you have these risk factors for heart disease.
  • Electrocardiogram (EKG): Recording your heart’s electrical activity can tell you if you have an abnormal heart rate or rhythm.
  • Exercise stress test: Checking your blood pressure and heart rhythm while you walk or pedal tells you if your heart gets enough blood flow when you’re active. You may also have imaging to help pick up signs of heart disease. If you can’t walk, medicine can help show blood flow issues.
  • Echocardiogram: Making images of your heart can show problems with its structure or function.
  • Calcium score test: Finding out how much calcium (from calcified plaque) is in your coronary arteries can help show whether you have plaque buildup and should treat your risk factors for heart attack and stroke more intensely. Plaque (fatty material) can build up and narrow your coronary arteries.
  • Coronary CT angiogram: Getting images of your coronary arteries lets your provider see plaque buildup, narrow areas and blockages.
  • Cardiac MRI: Without using radiation, this test creates images that can show damaged tissue or blood flow problems.
  • Carotid ultrasound: Using sound waves, a provider can look for narrow or blocked arteries that bring blood to your brain.

Advertisement

Test Details

How does cardiac screening work?

Depending on the test, heart screening tests can look at your risk factors for heart attack, stroke and blood vessel disease. They can also check how well your blood flows to your heart. Tests can find narrow or blocked arteries that keep your heart from getting the blood it needs.

Healthcare providers can do some tests without putting anything into your skin. For other tests, they’ll need to inject contrast dye into an IV in your arm. A nuclear stress test, like a SPECT or PET scan, uses a small amount of a radioactive tracer instead of dye.

What to expect when getting a heart screening test

You may need to avoid eating and drinking for several hours before your heart screening test. You also may need to stop taking some medicines or vitamins, or using tobacco or caffeine products. For some tests, a provider may ask you to change into a hospital gown and remove jewelry or other metals.

For most tests, you lie still. Imaging machines may move above or around you. You might need to hold your breath for a short time. For an exercise stress test, you’ll walk or pedal. For any test that tracks your heart rhythm, you’ll have sticky patches (electrodes) on several areas of your chest.

You may feel confined in a tight space like an MRI machine. When a healthcare provider puts an IV or a catheter into your skin, it might hurt a little.

What are the risks of this test?

Risks of heart screenings may include:

  • Harm to a fetus if you’re pregnant or to a baby if you’re nursing
  • Exposure to a small amount of radiation
  • Kidney damage or a reaction to an injected contrast substance
  • Injury from a catheter
  • Abnormal heart rhythm
  • Chest pain

Results and Follow-Up

What to expect after a heart health screening

After a cardiac screening, you can usually go back to your regular routine. If you had a sedative for your procedure, a friend will need to drive you home. If you got contrast dye, your healthcare provider may tell you to drink a lot of water. This helps the dye move out of your body in pee.

For some imaging tests, you may need to stay at the hospital for a few hours. Depending on the test you received and the results, your provider may want you to limit how active you are.

What type of results do you get and what do the results mean?

Blood tests give healthcare providers numbers they can use to look at your risk factors. They may want to find out your cholesterol or sugar level, for example. A calcium test score can tell you how much calcium is in your heart’s arteries.

Your provider can tell you whether you have a heart rhythm problem if they see certain wave patterns on an EKG. Sometimes, it can also show signs of prior damage to your heart. Other tests create images of your heart and blood vessels so providers can see blockages and blood flow issues.

Advertisement

It can take several days to get test results. It depends on the screening.

If the results are abnormal, what are the next steps?

You might need more tests if your healthcare provider wants to confirm what one test shows. If they find that you’re at risk of heart disease, they’ll suggest some changes. You may need medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol or issues with your heart’s rhythm or pumping ability.

Even if you receive normal results, there are things you can do to help prevent and manage existing heart and blood vessel disease, like:

  • Eating heart-healthy foods, like those in the Mediterranean diet
  • Stopping the use of tobacco products
  • Being physically active (moderate exertion) for 150 minutes a week

If you have narrow or blocked arteries, you may need a procedure to open or widen a blood vessel. A provider may place a stent to make sure your blood vessel stays open. Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is a more invasive option that reroutes blood flow around a blockage.

When should I call my healthcare provider?

Contact your provider if you have bleeding, swelling or signs of infection from a heart screening test. You should also let them know if you have questions about a test or its results.

A note from Cleveland Clinic

Maybe you have a lot of relatives with heart problems, or maybe you’re having some concerning symptoms. Either way, it can be hard to face heart screenings. Take it one step at a time. Talk with your healthcare provider about which tests make sense for you and why. Test results will help your provider craft a care plan that’s right for you.

Advertisement

Care at Cleveland Clinic

When your heart needs some help, the cardiology experts at Cleveland Clinic are here for you. We diagnose and treat the full spectrum of cardiovascular diseases.

Medically Reviewed

Last reviewed on 10/15/2025.

Learn more about the Health Library and our editorial process.

Ad
Appointments 800.659.7822