Evaluation and treatment of the asymptomatic patient with a positive exercise tolerance test.

A positive exercise study in an asymptomatic patient presents a clinical dilemma. Many of these asymptomatic positive studies are false-positive, but a subset of these patients have silent coronary artery disease. Other noninvasive tests can be used in conjunction with exercise testing to help identify this subset of patients, but coronary angiography is often ultimately necessary to ensure an accurate diagnosis. An algorithm for the evaluation and treatment of the patient with an asymptomatic positive exercise study is proposed.