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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Can a EKG be wrong?
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
Can a EKG be wrong?
by Maria, Oct 27, 1999 12:00AM
Dear Doctor,
I went to the ER on 18 Oct. with chest pains, shortness of breath, nausea, shakes and sweating and I was given an epi and oxygen right away. I suffer from hypertension and vocal cord dysfunction. Afterwards, they did an EKG and hooked me up to a heart monitor. The EKG was normal but during the attack the doc kept asking me if I ever had a heart attack before? I haven't. I see my regular doc next Monday and was wondering what kind of tests should I ask about and is it possible that the EKG can be wrong? I have a strong family history of heart disease (MI's,stroke,hypertension,diabetes)and I feel like I might have had a mild attack. Since the 18th, I have had off and on chest pains, some mild nausea and swelling in my hands and ankles. My blood pressure meds include 100mg tenormin and 40mg of zestril daily. Also, do you recommend a baby aspirin to take daily? I'm trying to research some sites on women and heart attacks and I want to ask the right questions next Monday to my doctor. Thank you for your advice and assistance. This is a great service. Keep up the good work.
I went to the ER on 18 Oct. with chest pains, shortness of breath, nausea, shakes and sweating and I was given an epi and oxygen right away. I suffer from hypertension and vocal cord dysfunction. Afterwards, they did an EKG and hooked me up to a heart monitor. The EKG was normal but during the attack the doc kept asking me if I ever had a heart attack before? I haven't. I see my regular doc next Monday and was wondering what kind of tests should I ask about and is it possible that the EKG can be wrong? I have a strong family history of heart disease (MI's,stroke,hypertension,diabetes)and I feel like I might have had a mild attack. Since the 18th, I have had off and on chest pains, some mild nausea and swelling in my hands and ankles. My blood pressure meds include 100mg tenormin and 40mg of zestril daily. Also, do you recommend a baby aspirin to take daily? I'm trying to research some sites on women and heart attacks and I want to ask the right questions next Monday to my doctor. Thank you for your advice and assistance. This is a great service. Keep up the good work.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF CARDIO MD - CRC, Oct 28, 1999 12:00AM
As with all tests there can be "false-positive and False-negative" findings on an ECG. An echocardiogram will help to verify or exclude the presence of damage from a heart attack.
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analysis of an EKG. These are supposed to be for screening
purposes only. I used to work as a programmer for a company
that wrote a program to analyze EKG's. I did a study where
100 EKG's each with significant pathology were analyzed by this
computer program, and also by 7 different real cardiologists.
There was a wide spread of interpretation on many of the 100
EKG's. The computer program ranked about fourth in overall
accuracy, that is, more accurate than about half of the
cardiologists. The absolute standard for each EKG was defined
as the consensus interpretation.
Another scary fact I read about is that the same cardiologist
may read the same EKG differently after a period of several
months during which he forgets that he has seen it before.
Rule : always get a second opinion if you have any doubts.