Abnormal EKG - could this be false?

[JAT9141]

I had an EKG today in preparation for having shoulder surgery.  The EKG was abnormal, much to my surprise.  I exercise daily, eat right, keep my weight down, don't smoke, drink only socially.  I have never had any heart problems and I don't have any current symptoms of any problems.  Is it possible this is false?  I have to go for a nuclear stress test now.  I was nervous during the doctor visit.  My blood pressure was a little elevated at the beginning of the doctor appointment, and at the end of the appointment, they re-took my blood pressure and it had come down 25 points.  So, could it be that my nervousness also affected my EKG?  Also, I've been reading on the Internet that EKG's are often false positives and that people then go for further testing to find out everything is fine.  Of course, now I am worried about having an abnormal EKG and hope that the readers can share some advice and personal stories about abnormal readings on EKG's being false positives.
Thank you!

[erijon]

Can't really say if yours was a false positive, but EKGs are notorious about providing false positives. I can tell you what happened to me once. I went in for my annual cardiac workup and the first thing they always do is take my vitals and do an EKG. After that, my cardiologist came in and started the exam. She read my file and when she got to my EKG she literally turned pale. She told me that the EKG showed that I had suffered a very large heart attack since my last visit. She said she needed to ask me some questions and it was very important I gave her honest answers. After about a  half an hour of non-stop grilling and my insistence that I had felt fine, she finally had a more "experienced" tech do another EKG. I can remember hearing her tell the tech in the hall to bring the strip to her right away because I was headed to the cath lab if it was still bad, not a good feeling!

Long story short, the second EKG was fine and just like my previous years. Turns out the first tech had placed one of the leads incorrectly causing the false positive.

Having a nuclear stress test done should give you some peace of mind. I've had two, piece of cake!

I hope this helps,

Good luck,

Jon