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2093880 tn?1334813768

Anomalous Coronary Artery???

I have some questions about Anomalous Coronary Artery.  

First a little background.  I'm a 30 year old female, who has been in great health, or so I thought.  I went to the cardiologist because I was have episodes of increased heart rate that would leave me really tired, weak, light headed and on rare occasion I would faint.  I'd had symptoms for years, but didn't get it diagnosed until 3 weeks ago.  I thought, great, this will be taken care of with the ablation surgery and I will be back to my normal self.  Then a few days ago I started getting chest pain and my right arm felt tingly.  I've never had chest pain before...ever.  I've had heartburn only 1 time and that was while I was pregnant.  I ended up going to the ER to get checked out.  I had been feeling exhausted for the 2 or 3 days prior to the initial chest pain and I had also been having a lot of SVT episodes, but no episodes for hours before experiencing chest pain.  They did an EKG and said it was normal and sent me home.  I've continued to have chest pain everyday since, but thankfully it only last minutes to a couple hours and the arm tingling went away after a day or two.  I should also add that my mother died suddenly at 28 from a heart attack.  I don't know the exact cause of it though.  Her family has a VERY bad heart history, with deaths from heart failure, and several surgeries including a heart transplant.  All were relatively young, thin and active....like me.  
Yesterday I had an appointment with my Cardiologist.  He asked a ton of questions regarding the chest pain along with other questions.  He listened to my heart again,...blah, blah, blah.  He wants to do a Cardiac CT because he thinks that I may have Suspect Anomalous Coronary Artery.  He explained what it is and now I'm trying to do some research, while waiting for insurance to either approve or deny that test.   I also have Mitral Valve Prolapse if that matters, may or may not, IDK.

My questions...

If you have this, what symptoms started presenting themselves to make you think something was wrong?  

Are you male or female, and what age did the symptoms appear?

What tests/exams were run to give this diagnosis?

Did your cardiologist have an idea that ACA is the problem prior to proving it via tests?  

Did you have it corrected/fixed?  If so, how?



Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.  This has been quite the month for me...geesh!

4 Responses
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2093880 tn?1334813768
Ok.  II'm grateful that I decided to play basketball this year.  I really started noticing a pattern which led me to believe that there was a problem.  I'm not sure I would have noticed it as soon if I wouldn't have started playing again.  Anyway, if the insurance approves it, I'm hoping to have the CT next week.  My doctor schedules them on Monday's and Friday's.  I would prefer Monday, just to get it out of the way and have a better idea of what is going on.  If they don't approve it, we're changing the game plan some.  He didn't mention the Cath and I don't know if that because I'm going to have ablation done this summer for my SVT or not.  My fingers are crossed that the insurance company approves the CT.  I'm trying not to worry, but yikes, there is a lot going on right now.  
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Avatar universal
did not have symptoms...  Went to the hospital with what I thought was a heart attack which turned out to be a anxiety attack....They did most of the normal test which showed everything was fine...They then put a cardiologist on my case who because of my age decided to do a heart cath to look for blockage in my arteries...That is when they found the single coronary...Then it was ct scan and a trip to Mayo clinic...They ran a TEE test and a stress test to rule out holes in the heart and any exercise induced issues....I was also always active...  Ran miles a day when I was young and did heavy weight lifting untill about age 50....CT scan is a piece of cake..When do u go for it............
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2093880 tn?1334813768
Thank you for that information!!!  

Did you have any symptoms before you were diagnosed?  What test/exam did they do to discover it?  



Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
They say almost 1 % of the population has a coronary anomaly...There are many different types...It is impossible to dx one without a CT Scan or an a heart cath.......I am a 62 year old male that they found a single coronary artery in about a year ago.....The treatments range from nothing being done to medicines to keep the heart rate and blood pressure down (which is what I am on ) to surgery if an artery is pinched off...I dont think you will have any problems with insurance on the test....If you find out you do have an anomaly it wouldnt hurt to have it checked by a specialist that deals with Adults with Congenital Heart Defects..Go to the Adult Congenital Heart ***.  website ...List clinics and Dr....
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