Stress Test

Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wikipedia: Cardiac stress test
A cardiac stress test is a medical test that indirectly reflects arterial blood flow to the heart during physical exercise. When compared to blood flow during rest, the test reflects imbalances of blood flow to the heart’s left ventricular muscle tissue – the part of the heart that performs the greatest amount of work pumping blood.
 
The results may also be interpreted as a reflection on a person’s overall physical fitness.
 
The first standardized cardiac stress test was developed in 1929 by Arthur Master, a doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
 
Google Books
The Sport of the Gods
By Paul Laurence Dunbar
Edition: reprint
Published by World Bank Publications
1970
Pg. 31:
Banks’ exposure to external risks entails three standard risks: (a) economic downturn, (b) sharp and sustained interest rate movement, and (c) exchange rate change. Ideally, a systematic stress test would be carried out on each bank’s portfolio to assess the impact of substantial adverse developments on all these fronts.
 
5 September 1973, New York (NY) Times, pg. 44:
ARTHUR MASTER,
CARDIOLOGIST, 77
Developer of the “Two-Step”
Heart Diagnostic Test Dies
Dr. Arthur M. Master, who developed the “Master Two-Step” exercise tolerance test for the diagnosis of heart disease, died yesterday of cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 77 years old and lived at 885 Park Avenue. Until a few weeks ago, Dr. Master had maintained an active practice in cardiology at his office, 125 East 72d Street.
 
The “Two-Step,” which Dr. Master developed in the nineteen-forties, consists of two 9-inch steps that a patient must climb up and down for a prescribed length of time depending on weight and age. After a measured amount of exercise an electrocardiogram reveals the presence of heart disease that is often undetectable when the electrocardiogram is administered to a patient at rest.
 
Google Books
Investing Public Funds
By Girard Miller, M. Corinne Larson, Paul Zorn, Government Finance Officers Association
1984
Pg. 30:
At this stage, however, it is important to constantly monitor the portfolio, the outside markets and the relative value of competing instruments, as well as stress test the portfolio under varying interest rate scenarios.
 
8 February 1994, New York (NY) Times, pg. D22:
Dr. Simon Dack, 85, the Founder
And Editor of Cardiology Journal
By RANDY KENNEDY
(...)
Born in Manhattan, Dr. Dack received his medical degree in 1932 from New York Medical College, where he graduated first in his class. WHile still an intern at Mount Sinai, he worked with Dr. Arthur M. Master to develop the first cardiac stress test, a precursor of the treadmill stress test, in which patients climbed steps to increase their heart rate.
 
Google Books
Current legal issues affecting central banks
By Robert C. Effros, International Monetary Fund. Legal Dept, IMF Institute
Published by International Monetary Fund
1998
Pg. 370:
What is the purpose of a stress test? A stress test should demonstrate to an institution both where it may have too much exposure in a particular risk dimension or with respect to a particular counterparty, or where it may be relying on assumed relationships between prices, volatility, or liquidity conditions that could break down. Management should take appropriate action, for example, by scaling back its activities with respect to that risk dimension or counterparty. The stress test should help the bank identify genuine potential threats and how it might manage itself in these scenarios.
 
New York (NY) Times
Robert A. Bruce Is Dead at 87; Pioneer of Cardiac Stress Test
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: Saturday, February 14, 2004
(...)
Dr. Bruce, an emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Washington, has been called the father of exercise cardiology for having developed the test, which is taught in medical schools as the Bruce Protocol.
 
The test involves putting a patient on an initially slow-moving treadmill, with the electrodes of an electrocardiograph machine attached to the chest to monitor heart signals. Then, every three minutes, both the incline of the treadmill and its speed are increased. (Only elite athletes can persevere to the seventh and final stage, said Dr. Richard I. Page, who occupies the Robert A. Bruce Chair in Medicine at the University of Washington.)
     
New York (NY) Times
On Language
Zombie Banks
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Published: May 14, 2009
Ten days ago, 19 large United States banks bolstered by huge federal infusions reported on the varying results of the stress tests given by the government lender-investor-bailouter (the Zombulator?) to see how they could stand up to recession pressures. Stress test, an 1890s engineering term, began in the 1960s to be used to describe an electrocardiogram of the heart taken during exercise. Sheidlower dug up a stunning early application of the way it is used today: “The American dollar and the world’s confidence in the American economic system were being subjected to severe stress tests.” The reporter: David S. Broder. The year: 1978.