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Questions posted in the
Heart Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: chest pain I am a 45 year old woman currently being treated for high blood pressure, edema, tachycardia and angina. I take an ACE inhibitor, a beta blocker and a diuretic. I had a thallium treadmill test done about 18 months ago. During that time I was on all above meds except ACE inhibitor. The test showed no narrowing of the arteries. Recently, I have started noticing an increase in chest pain when I am tired. My concerns are: because of the edema and tachycardia, do I have congestive heart failure? Also because of the increased chest pain, do I need to have another stress test done? I feel that I have not been adequately diagnosed, just given a bunch of pills and told to go home and take them. We have a strong family history of heart disease and I want to know what is going on. I would appreciate your advise on this topic. Thank you. Dear Marcia Edema and tachycardia can be associated with advanced congestive heart failure. A cardiac ultrasound - echocardiogram - would be able to make that diagnosis. If your symptoms have changed, a repeat stress test may be in order. One option would be a stress echocardiogram, which would provide all the relevant information. If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
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