D dimmer test results

Was having labored breathing, under lots of stress the last month, BP, was 144/110, went to my pcp, did many BP checks, and EKG, was a bit off, sent me to ER, chest X-ray, EKG there was told good, did blood, was told I needed a cat scan with contrast, which was fine, was told dimmer was 5, any thing over 2 is not normal, could be a pulmonary embolism, told they found, nothing, was kept overnight, did echocardiogram, was fine, discharged, only told. D dimmer can be high due to cancer, auto immunize diseases, pregnant, none of which I have, NO ONE can tell me why this is high, can it be DVT, or a clot , help, please, thanks

[mklarson]

D-dimmers are a great diagnostic tool, but I tend to see a ~10% "false positive" rate with them. In other words, you would need to have a second D-dimmer run to confirm the result. Your first sentence makes me think your problem falls into the "false positive" category as stress can throw off many readings.  The more likely cause is the stress resulted in labored breathing, increased BP, and abnormal EKG's.  See if you can get a few Valium from your doctor for the next episode to see if that resolves the problem.  If so, then you can attack it from that angle.

Best of luck.  

[Pyewacket1969]

Thank you, I am seeing my doctor in a week, I do have some Valium and they help so much, however getting more than one refill is almost impossible from my doctor,,I am going to ask to have the test repeated, I have lots of aching pain in my left thigh and back, but have a bad back, and tear in my glut muscle, if stress can cause this dimmer test to go up, well, I have been under a ton of stress,,thank you again.