Abnormal EKG

[ergobeads]

Healthy post menopausal 53 year old female.  Recently had EKG which showed diffuse upsloping ST depression.  No chest pain, shortness of breath or other symptoms.  Exercise with no problems.  EKG 3 years ago showed ST & T wave abnormalities.  Had a nuclear stress test which was negative for any heart problems.  Am very anxious person when it comes to my health, and was nervous when they did the ekg.  Dr. wants to see all EKG's in past 3 years. (I had surgery a year ago, and EKG was fine) and evaluate me in a month.  Thoughts on whether the EKG could be false positive because of anxiety, hormone changes, etc..??

[kenkeith]

Good luck!  Stay with us.

[ergobeads]

Thanks for your response.  I am seeing my cardiologist again later this week so we'll see what tests he orders at this time.

[kenkeith]

ST elevation, depression, are associated with having had a heart attack, and/or silent ischemia and requries further evidence.  I had a ST abnormaility 7 years ago when I was admitted into ER with having had a silent heart attack.  The reliability of a correct diagnosis is not very high with an EKG.  Some medications can give a false positive. It does seem anxiety and nervousness, etc. can interfer with a normal EKG reading.  If the heart rate is over 100 when having an EKG, the test will be positive.  

With any EKG test, it requries further evidence to validate any diagnosis. Thanks for your question, and if you have any further questions or comments you are welcome to respond.  Take care.