MILD STENOSIS CAUSE ANGINA?

[brummiebabe]

Hi, I`m new to this forum. About 12 months ago I was walking up a hill and my throat went very tight and felt couldnt breathe properly. It bothered me so told gp who said sounded like angina and sent me for CT of heart. This revealed mild stenosis in left descending artery and advised me to do on aspirin and statins which i have been taking since last july. I had CT with contrast in august which confirmed other CT and cardiologist put me on 5mg bisoprolol which i have been taking. I feel my throat tight/tense still when waling for a while - up, straight and downhill. I wonder if this could be tension as i have suffered from this in the past?
Sometimes feels more like wind trapped in my ribs and 1 GP thinks part of ibs! SO CONFUSED!!! Anyone get any ideas?

[Wndjo]

Angiogram is what you need to determine blockage.  I had mild chest pain for almost 3 years.  Felt like someone was poking their finger in my chest.  I knew something wasn't right, but test after test on my heart said I was fine. Last December I started getting the tightness in my throat and my jaw and teeth ached.  No "crushing feeling in my chest", just uncomfortable.   I finally found a cardiologist who told me an angiogram was the only 100% way to know if I had blockages.    While I was on the table in the middle of my angiogram, my dr called an ambulance to take me to the Heart Hospital. Within 3 days I was having a triple bypass.  Three of my arteries were 98% blocked.  Ask for an angiogram.  If they are blocked below 70% they might try to use a balloon to break up plaque if they can't do a stent.  Or they might think the plaque can be reduced with medicine.   Good luck.

[brummiebabe]

thanks 4 that ed34

[ed34]

If you get throat discomfort on exertion this is a classic form of angina due to ischemia. The easy test is to stand still when the discomfort begins. It will usually disappear very quickly, within 2 minutes. Mine goes after just 20 seconds. The medication you are on, statins and Aspirin are not going to make the problem go away, they are to help prevent the blockage getting worse or clots forming in the artery. The bisoprolol is to keep the heart more relaxed and prevent it jumping suddenly into hard action mode. The only way this problem will get resolved is by intervention, to open the blockage more. So you are looking at either stenting or bypass. However, until the blockage reaches the critical size (70% or greater), no cardiologist will offer that. This is because the risk of the blockage must exceed the risk of a procedure before action is taken. A CT scan isn't the best scan to have for the artery, an Angiogram is the gold standard. I know people who were told they had mild stenosis in an artery, but an angiogram revealed a worse situation. There is also blood flow rate to consider. An artery may be just 10% blocked, but blood flow may be reduced considerably due to the irregularities along the vessel wall. It's like the difference between water running down glass compared to water running across stones. I had an angiogram last year which showed zero plaque in my left circumflex, but using FFR the blood flow rate was reduced by half less than a third of the way down the vessel. So although nothing could be seen, the artery lining was obviously very rough. It took 2 stents end to end, to resolve the problem. If I was in your situation, I would push for an angiogram, just to investigate. You will also find the weather to be a factor for your throat. The colder the air, the quicker the symptoms will appear. As summer approaches, you may even not notice any symptoms.