False Negative

[Xanderzone]

I have occasional chest pain.  The 2 day ischemia test in the hospital showed negative for ischemia.  I have dysfasia, difficulty swallowing sometimes, MVP, frequent and noticeable PVCs and one or two other small (what ever small means) valve leaks and chronic hiatal hernia, heart palpatations and almost pass out some times.  chlestoral slightly high and BP is good.  normal treadmill with maybe a pain at high rate.  the chronic hiatal hernia (from barium swallow test) also apparently exhibits heart attack symptoms.  have had echocardiogram twice where they found a stiff wall and the other problems.  some machines are very old and some are the state of the art, which I wonder how that affects results.
my cardiologist says all these tests show I am ok and classified me as a class 1.  but I still do have some chest pain at times and think that some of the tests may not be fully accurate.  I take nitroglycerin at times and 81mg asprin and lipitor.  

I understand that the treadmill identifys 80-90% of the problems.  am wondering how accurate these other tests are and the likely hood of a false negative(s).  The equipment appeared to be older that was used for the ischemia test and not as new as what UCLA uses.  have been in the ER twice and 58 yrs old and have stressful desk job whci does not help.  the calcium scan put me above the 75 percentile, which was concerning.  thank you

[erijon]

The calcium scan results are still up for debate so I can't really address that. I assume that the two day treadmill test you had was a Nuclear Stress Test in which you were injected with a nuclear tracer at rest and at stress. These tests are 85% accurate and the chances of a false positive are much greater than the chance of a false negative, although they can happen. You will read about many people that had a normal nuclear stress test and then had a heart attack on the internet. Be careful and keep this in perspective, most people won't post on the internet that they had a normal nuclear stress test and everything is OK, you generally only hear baout the bad ones.

Good Luck,

Jon

[john_gone_fishing]

Hi,
I had a stress thallium when I was 40 years old, completed the full test and was willing to go faster or longer, DR said no. The next day I was informed I had failed this test. Even the Dr was suprised. Went to angio cath lab, nothing was found. 15 years later passed stress echo, a year after that had a stent for a 95% blockage LAD lower portion. I have always eaten a great diet less than 40 gr fat a day since I was 30. 5"8 155 lb. Always active racketball 4 times a week from age 18-35. Ran 3 to 5 miles 3 to 5 times a week for 15 years stopped in 2003 due to Fibro. Unfortunitly smoked a pack a day. Calcium is a good indicator that you may have a blockage or the start of a blockage. I insisted the DR do a 64 ct slice and it found it after a year to saying there was something wrong, most of all listen to what your body is tring to say.