HEART ATTACK ??

[line]

My husband had what was called a severe heart attack 5 weeks ago, he was tranfered to Lehigh Valley hospital where he reveived excellant care. He had a 100% and a 80% blockage that were both opened and stented on different days. He is doing fine, other than being bored and tired. He is 67, not over weight, very active, "did" smoke moderatly, a pack every three days.

He had no symtons of having blockage, tiredness, sob, edema nothing. He never had high chol. but does have and had controlled b/p with meds. He had a stress test done a year ago and passed, a thallium stress done within the last three years, was in the hospital overnight for chest pains. Was monitored, ekg's, echo's bloodwork etc, everything was fine. He does have a history of chest pain from cervical problems and nerve damage in his shoulder, he knew this pain was diferent and told me to call the ambulance he was having a heart attack and than passed out.

He had blood work done in Jan. his hs-crp was 13.9, which our g/p put him on a satin. His homoscystein level was 23.4 and was put on foltx. I just cannot believe this happened, it seems like something was overlooked since you do not become 100% in a year, at least not to my knowledge. Is there any test that can really determine blockage with out having a cath done?

I read about ear creases in the ear lobes being a sign of cad about a year ago and noticed the creases in his ears, I mentioned to him. Since he is home the creases have dissappeared and are now lines. What is your opinion on this theory?

The DR. said the attack hit the lower back of his heart, which accordng to him is the best place to have an attack if you are going to have one.He has very minimal damage and none to the pymping area of the heart. How can this be classified as a severe heart attack when there is minimal damage?

Thanks, Line

[CCF-M.D.-MJM]

Hi Line,

sorry to hear about your husbands recent health problems.

Is there any test that can really determine blockage with out having a cath done?

The truth is that we do our best, but this is not a perfect science.  We (cardiologist in general) have all seen cases of people with no risk factors, very active, and no symptoms get a stress test and have it be very positive.  We also see people with negative stress tests that have real disease.   The problem is figure out when to be more aggressive and look with a cath.  We know these are very safe procedures, but safe doesn't mean full proof.  We all see complications to relatively safe procedures.

Regarding the stress test, some people compensate for blockages with collateral blood flow from other vessels.  They can have normal stress tests despite severe blockages.

This part is the hardest for people to understand and accept:
There is chest pain that comes from stable severe blockages and there is chest that comes from heart attacks -- rupture plaques with thrombus.  Pre-existing blockages do no predict where and when an infarct will happen. They just help us risk stratify higher risk patients.


What is your opinion on this theory?

I know the study exists but I don't know what to do with it.

How can this be classified as a severe heart attack when there is minimal damage?

Inferior heart attacks, especially if they involve the right ventricle can produce cardiogenic shock even though the permenant damage is sometimes minimal.

I hope this helps answer your questions.

Good luck

[HAMMERHEAD]

WHAT WAS THE STUDY ON THE CREASES ON THE EAR LOBES? AFTER I READ YOUR POST I STARTED LOOKING AT MINE AND OTHER PEOPLES AN NOTICE THAT MOST EVERYBODY HAS SOME KIND OF CREASE IN IT. WHERE DID YOU SEE THIS INFO. THANKS, GARY

[line]

Hammerhead, I read this in our news paper about a year ago, my husband had very deep creases not a little indenture. I have read the same thing on several web sites, one that I know of is called what your body is telling you, but cannot find the url.from what I read if the crease is in one ear, you are at 33% higher risk for a cad, both lobes put you at 77%. I did mention this to our g/p and she said she knows they are quite a few  studies out about this. They are saying because of the poor blood flow these creases appear.

A old friend of mine, her husband had a heart attack a year ago and had the deep creases also, she said all he has is lines now.

Do not know the validity to this theory, but really see a difference in my husband, again, his creases were very deep.

Anacyde, thank you for posting and I wish your father a lot luck also. Thanks for your post and concern.

[tickertock]

As far as I know , the connection between earlobe creases and coronary heart disease appears to be linked in some way and not just coincidental, thats not to say that everyone with earlobe creases has coronary heart disease.

[axg9504]

Why can't they just do heart cath's, it's a safe procedure and the 'gold' standard. I had an 'abnormal' resing ecg 3 years ago which led to a thallium stress test which indicated possible blockage. The heart cath was negative however. They did tell me that the diaphragm can in some people yield a false positive on the thallium stress test in that it falsely shows lack of perfusion. In my case I guess I am lucky I had the false positive that led to the more decisive heart cath.

[yellowrose]

hi, just wanted to know if anyone elsa has had pvc/pacs every hour on the hour its a new thing for me ive had them 20 years on and off but not like this, i have no other systoms with them just they wont go away and ive had this going on 2 weeks. can anyone tell me if this has happen to them. thanks a lot.

[cuaco]

Yup,yellowrose, I have had them for 2 weeks straight, around 4 a minute with no breaks.  I find that they suddenly stop and I will get around 3/4 a day for weeks/months then bang off they go again.  Stress pays a part and I think fluctuating hormone levels, I am 42 and female.  I have had all the tests (ok) and take bisoprolol when it gets bad simply to quieten down my body's my fear response. Hope this helps.

[Charlie S]

I have had pvcs for over 13 years and mine and I have them every day some a lot and some not to many. I had a hoilter test done which showed about 3,000 in one day but nothing else. So to answer your question yes I get them every day some hours a lot and some none but I do not let them bother me. I really notice them at night when I lie down. If it has not stopped yet I think were ok.

[LizeeeH]

A GP on an afternoon show was talking about heart attacks/disease and mentioned the crease in the earlobe.....I noticed my husband has one just on the one ear? he says its all mumbo-jumbo....I dont have the creases and Im the one with ectopics?

[yellowrose]

thank ya for telling me your side not that i glad ya have them but it always helps to have others who can say yes its ok i have them like that to. ive had them since i was 23 now 46 but this is new to me never have i had them last this long and every hour like clock work, it was scarey but i delt with it this long so guess i get over them . yes they come and go  for me to but i might have them on and off through the day, but every hour omg how do ya do it if you have them all day i would be in nutts house. ya have a great safe day. thanks again i feel better .barb

[nymomof5]

I too can get pacs/pvcs all day for like a week at a time.  I can get a "skip" every 4 seconds to 21 seconds alll day long.  It gets to be quite annoying but I try not to let it get to me.

[nymomof5]

Do the creases in the earlobes go up and down across the earlobe?  I just noticed I have small creases that go thru my pierced earing holes.  When I put my earrings in this morning, the creases got even less noticeable.  Maybe my earlobes are stretched but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thanks

[line]

His creases went up and down, but were deep, like a pucker. We were at the cardio yesterday and I mentioned this to him, he said they themselves are watching this because there are so many studies going on about it. He had these for a year at least that I was aware of before his cva. You probably just have that line from the ears being peirced.

I really believe this to be true because I have seen it, I had told my neighbor about the creases after I read about it, she noticed my husband and now sees the line instead of the crease, she said she truely believes this also. Not to say that everyone that has a crease in their ear lobe has cad but it sure held true with my husband.

Linda

[lance1881]

I have had PACs/PVCs over the the past few years but only off and on.  For the past few months they have been almost constant.  I wanted to see if anyone has heard of taking fish oil capsules (1,000 mgs) to minimize the PACs and PVCs?  I have found several articles on the internet which discuss this in detail.  I purchase a bottle yesterday and checked with my cardiologist who said he had never heard of such a claim.

Right now I am will to try anything to either decrease the frequency of the PACs or eliminate them completely.

[upbeat63]

If you are interested in more about ear lobe creases you can go to an article in medline at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003045.htm just copy and paste this into your browser and it should go to the article and there are even illustrations. Happy reading. Of course, as the article mentions, the creases may increase as a person ages, so it's not a perfect science. Just one more thing to consider though

There is another sign of hypoxia--less oxygen, and that is clubbing of the finger nails, where the nails get thick and noticably rounded. Really rounded. I think more doctors will look at your fingernails than they will your earlobes!

[nymomof5]

Thank you for letting me know about the creases.  I did read online that the crease associated with cad went diagnal on the earlobe so I was curious to know which way your husbands crease had gone.  Now that I have my earrings in my ears (medium size hoops) my crease is gone.  But I do also believe in this theory.

Lance1881:  I actually just read in a womans magazine last week about the benefits of the fish oils in helping with palpatations as well as a host of other things.  I'm just afraid of getting a fishy taste in my mouth from it.  Someone on another website I go to mentioned getting a fish taste if they didn't take it with food.

[nymomof5]

Thank you for that link.  It was great! It shows a picture of an earlobe crease in case anyone else is interested.

[Duchess47]

From what I've read taking fish oil supps. while on blood pressure meds, can cause "dangerously low level of B.P.".  Just be careful when taking anything over the counter with other meds.

[Barbarella]

My grandma had creases in both of her earlobes for many years, and she died in her sleep at age 83.  I got creases in mine, my husband got them.  This is the last thing I would worry about.