Originally Posted by pdlamb

When I had my stress echo, it was only coincidence I saw a doctor -- in the hall on my way in. It was just techs and aides in the room with me. I suspect the formulaic approach is something that's reasonable for some slice of the population, as long as you've got an experienced tech (as mine was) watching the pace, climb, and heart rate. If I'd leveled off earlier and been turning red in the face, I suspect she would have terminated the stress part early. Since my HR was still climbing she stopped when I hit that magic pulse.

If you were on the medical team, would you believe an old man coming in and telling you his maximum pulse was 20 bpm higher than the formula? It could be me (trained cyclist), or it could be macho man still hung over from last night!