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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Heart or no?
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Heart or no?
by chevs1424, Oct 30, 2005 12:00AM
Hey this is Dan and I am 19 years old. About 6 months ago i started to feel a stabbing sharp pain right below my left nipple. At first it was just a pain and I didn't think it was anything to be concerned over. After two weeks of the pain, other things started to happen. I started to feel as though i couldn't do normal everyday things and my intolerance to heat grew. The symptoms progressed and currently are worsened. I feel as though I am very short of breath sometimes, my heart is almost always beating very hard, I still feel the sharp pain, and sometimes it feel almost like a cramp. When I breath in the pain hurts at the top of the breath and also the center of my chest hurts when i breath in. Lately I experience sharp pains all over my chest, back, left arm and even neck. I have had a chest xray, about 6 EKGs, chest catscan, thorasic spine MRI, echocardiogram, regular stress test on a treadmill, and a blood test for the cardiologiest checking enzymes. All were fine. When i went to one cardiologist he doesn't seem to think it is my heart but since the first stress test he said was inconclusive he wanted to give me a nuclear stress test. He also gave me an event monitor which i have used for a while now. All my life i have been healthy and have played hockey, never any problems. Everyday now I feel as though I have something seriously wrong and that im slipping away, but there hasn't been anything found. I need other options; thyroid, heart, digestive, anything! Thank you anyone for taking the time to read this.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-MJM, Oct 30, 2005 12:00AM
I chevs,
These are toughs situations (for you and us). Nothing you wrote above made me think this is your heart -- nothing. The symptoms ar too nonspecific, diffuse, and atypical. This is supported by the normal echo, ekg and CT scan. I would want to make sure that the CT scan showed perfectly normal origins to your coronary arteries and that your heart is structrually normal.
The problem you are going to run into is based on probability alone and what we define as normal test, 1 in every 20 tests you take is going to be abnormal (yet still be normal either from a normal variant or testing error).
It sounds appropriate to repeat your stress test, the problem is it is going to be normal and you still aren't going to know what is going on. I am not sure where else to point you as the cause of these symptoms, but I do not think they are cardiac.
If you find out, please post and let us know. Good luck and I hope you feel well soon.
These are toughs situations (for you and us). Nothing you wrote above made me think this is your heart -- nothing. The symptoms ar too nonspecific, diffuse, and atypical. This is supported by the normal echo, ekg and CT scan. I would want to make sure that the CT scan showed perfectly normal origins to your coronary arteries and that your heart is structrually normal.
The problem you are going to run into is based on probability alone and what we define as normal test, 1 in every 20 tests you take is going to be abnormal (yet still be normal either from a normal variant or testing error).
It sounds appropriate to repeat your stress test, the problem is it is going to be normal and you still aren't going to know what is going on. I am not sure where else to point you as the cause of these symptoms, but I do not think they are cardiac.
If you find out, please post and let us know. Good luck and I hope you feel well soon.
