How long can a person live with Angina

[mike00x]

I am 37, how long can a person live with Angina? I was negative on the exercise stress test. But I have off and on chest pain usually due to stress.

[kenkeith]

One should be able to have a normal life span.  The issue isn't angina, but the underlying cause for the cardiac/vascular disorder and  that is almost always artery occulsion.  Angina is the lack of adequate blood supply to the heart muscle.

Many people can take control and manage their health (cardio/vascular) with exercise, proper diet, medication, etc.  You have been given a warning!  Some ijncluding myself didn't exeperience angina, until there was heart muscle damage.

You don't have to live with angina.  Medication can open (dilate) vessels and avoid any chest pain, etc. (angina).  If medication can't control angina, the other options are stent implants or by-pass.  Whether there is an interventional procedure or medication for occluded arteries, statistics show there is no difference in longivity.

[mike00x]

You would not believe how good that makes me feel. I was thinking I might only have 4 or 5 years at most to live. I was so freaked out.

What about medication to reduce cholesteral. Like crestor etc, do these affect your liver. My Cholesteral is 249.

[mike00x]

My issue to was I am only 37!!!

How could I be diagnose with heart problems?

[kenkeith]

If you experience chest pain with exertion and there is relief at rest (classified as stable angina), that could indicate there may be coronary blockage, and more advanced stage of coronary blockage there is angina that isn't relieved with rest.  Other symptoms could be shortness of breath, etc. A diagnosis usually starts with an EKG (monitoring electrical wave forms) that is low tech for diagnosing enlarged chambers, blocked arteries, heart muscle damage.  If the test is positive, there is usally a referal for an echocardiogram.  The test monitors blood flow through heart for valve integrity, observes if any heart wall movement impairment, and can calculate heart wall and chamber dimensions as well as contractility (pumping ability).  

[MysteryChemist]

Are you seeing a cardiologist?  If not, you really need to see one to get the proper counseling and perhaps even a statin to help control your cholesterol. As Kenkeith says, you have been given a warning. You need to act on it. The cardiologist can give you the best advice about angina.

[mike00x]

I did do an exercise stress test (Run on a treadmill while strapped to an EKG) and the doctor said it was fine.

[fizzixgal]

Were you actually diagnosed with angina? I'm wondering because you said your treadmill EKG was negative. I'm not saying that you DON'T have it, just that chest pain on and off "due to stress" could be a lot of things and doctors usually need more evidence to dx true angina caused by heart muscle ischemia. Just as an example, my cardio has NOT dx'd me with angina even though, clinically, my pain can't be distinguished from it. He just rx'd nitro for me to try the next time I have symptoms.

I also agree with MysteryChemist's advice to consult with a cardiologist if you haven't already.

[kenkeith]

The probaility is high there is no vessel blockage with a negative stress test!  Anxiety, stress, etc. can cause chest pains and  I assume he has been in consultation with a doctor otherwise  there wouldn't have been a stress test.

During a stress test there is or should be doctor monitoring the procedure and a professional reading of the final results.  My stress test was stopped after several minutes and a well documented and recording of the results.

The sensitivity reading from a stress test is very high, but there good be professional incompetence and equipment malfunction.  I doubt very much there is anything to worry about under those conditions. There could be an occasional and an abnormal  neurological impulse that causes a vessel spasm resulting in pain and that wouldn't show on an EKG unless an event occurred at the time of the test.

[mike00x]

On 5 April, I had a chest pain. I visited a hospital. They did a EKG. At that time I did not have the pain again. So they said they said I should visit my Doctor to see if its Angina.

I visited a GP. He sent me for a cholesterol test. It came back high. 249. LDL was 181 and HDL was 40. He sent me to do a Exercise stress test.

It was done and monitored by a doctor. The results sent to my GP.

He looked at it and said that there is nothing wrong with my heart. I asked him about the pains I sometimes get with stress. He said stress can cause that. I was reading though that the exercise stress test will only show up something if the blockage is 50-70%.

[mike00x]

The next day I decided to run 2 laps to see if anything would happen. I really did push myself the first lap. As I went along I started to feel a pain in the center of my chest. I had to stop. This is what has gotten me worried.

[kenkeith]

There is perfusion (dye like substance) and that will be seen as reduced if there is blockage or partial blockage, but there are many smaller vessels that can cause a problem, and  I have read the majority of heart attacks (ischemic) are due to smaller vessels other than the coronary arteries.  If the pain is related to heart ischemia, as the other poster states it can be/should be relieved with a nitro pill as it has an immediate effect by dilating vessels.  Do you have a reference for 50 to 70% vessels are obscurred from a perfusion test?

Your lipid levels are high, and an indication you may be vulnerable to an occlusion(s) so a stress test was scheduled. Yes, stress can cause chest pains, and stress can cause a heart attack for a vulnerable individual as well.

Any further testing for heart ischemia would be angioplasy and that has some risk as an interventional procedure.  You should try medication before an angioplasty.

[mike00x]

Do you have a reference for 50 to 70% vessels are obscurred from a perfusion test?

Are you asking me where I go my reference. What I was saying that in one of the forum someone was saying that an exercise stress test will only show abnormalities if the blockage is more than 50 %. Or did I quote that incorrectly and it was for the other test you spoke about (the perfusion test).

[mike00x]

One other question. Can exercise and statin reduce buildup in the arteries.

[fizzixgal]

There was a study a couple of years ago that showed that aggressive statin therapy could actually reverse atherosclerosis. From a quick online search I just found that it was called the ASTEROID study, followed 349 high-risk patients taking a high dose of rosuvastatin using intravascular ultrasound and concluded that nearly two thirds achieved a significant reduction in atheroma volume. I don't know what later studies have shown but it seems that you probably can reduce buildup with an aggressive program to lower LDL and raise HDL, which exercise helps with.

I don't know any figures of how blocked an artery needs to be for a perfusion scan to show reduced supply. The scan detects radioactivity from an injected tracer that is taken up by the heart muscle, so I think microvascular disease (in smaller arteries and capillaries) would probably show up in that test too, but I'm not sure of its sensitivity to microvascular disease. For CAD it's a more sensitive test than the stress EKG but also more prone to false positives because the radiation is coming from the heart and has to pass through bone and soft tissue which can absorb it and simulate areas of reduced uptake. That's one reason doctors don't usually order a perfusion study unless they already have a high index of suspicion.

You've had exercise-induced chest pain that raises YOUR index of suspicion, and it's a good thing to be suspicious! I think your best bet is to get together with a good cardiologist. (S)he can answer all your questions and order whatever tests are needed to figure out if your chest pain is really heart related, and if it is, whether it is angina, and what best to do about it.

[mike00x]

Thanks guys