Preoperative non-invasive testing aims to provide informed choices about the appropriateness of surgery, guide perioperative management, and assess the long-term risk of a cardiac event through identification of left ventricular dysfunction, heart valve abnormalities, and myocardial ischaemia. Preoperative non-invasive testing is not recommended routinely, but it should be considered in patients in whom initial clinical evaluation indicates increased risk for perioperative cardiac complications and who are scheduled for intermediate- or high-risk surgery. Pharmacological stress testing combined with myocardial perfusion imaging or echocardiography is more suitable than physical exercise for the detection of myocardial ischaemia in patients with limited exercise tolerance that is common in the preoperative setting. Alternatively, non-invasive coronary computed tomography angiography can identify obstructive coronary artery disease. A negative stress testing with imaging or the absence of high-risk coronary anatomy on computed tomography angiography is associated with a low incidence of perioperative cardiac events, but the positive predictive value is relatively low, that is, the risk is relatively low despite a positive result. In patients with extensive stress-induced ischaemia or extensive obstructive coronary artery disease detected by non-invasive testing, individualized perioperative management is recommended considering the potential benefit of the proposed surgical procedure, weighed against the predicted risk of adverse outcome.
