Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Stress echo
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.
Stress echo
by Kristine__0, Nov 03, 1998 12:00AM
This is long, but PLEASE hear me out. I'm 29 years old and last year I had a catheterization (angiogram). It was probably unneccessary. I had pain in my jaw and was given a thallium test that was normal, however I did have pain (that now I believe was muscular) while running during the test. So, my doctor suggested a catheterization to ease any doubts. During the test I felt pain a few seconds before he removed the catheter from my heart; but as soon as he removed it, the pain stopped. Ever since I've had problems. I went to another doctor afterwards who diagnosed me as having PAC's (after wearing an event monitor) I never had these before the cath., now I feel them all the time. In addition, I've now experienced shortness of breath (out of the blue and upon exertion) So, two months ago (8 months after the cath.) I had a stress echo because I was concerned the doctor that performed the cath damaged my coronary arteries in some way with the catheter (causing an artery to slowly become blocked over the past year) or damaged my aorta (scarred it in some way) because I've been sick ever since the procedure. My stress echo was normal, however I did have 3 PAC's during the running. I'm still short of breath and it's getting worse. How can this be? It's not lung related - been checked out. Question is, could the catheter procedure last year have damaged or bruised a coronary artery and now it's becoming blocked, or could my aorta have been bruised or damaged by the catheter and the stress echo have missed something? I don't know where to go from here. I don't think my doctor is going to test me any further because my stress echo in August was normal. I'm convinved something went wrong during that procedure because firstly I felt pain just before the catheter was removed and secondly, I have PAC's and shortness of breath often that never happened before the test. Isn't it strange how right after having the catheterization I developed PAC's? (from what I understand the catheter is placed in the atrium) So, it all adds up - I believe the tip of an artery was damaged in my atrium by the catheter and has now blocked up or my aorta is damaged and that's causing my symptoms. I'm now afraid I'm going to soon have a heart attack. How do I get this diagnosed?? Where do I go from here? I regularly take aspirin and vitamin E. Could they have made my stress echo normal even though there is something there? (I know that aspirin helps deliver more oxygen to the heart) Maybe the aspirin or vitamin E made the test false negative. I'm 29 years old. I'm terrified. Please help.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF Cardio MD - MTR, Nov 03, 1998 12:00AM
_
Dear Kristine, thank you for your question. I'll make a few points. First, you have normal coronary arteries - that has been proven by multiple stress tests and the gold standard test - a cardiac catheterization. The incidence of coronary artery damage or aortic wall damage in a cath is extremely low (around 1/2000). If that happened to you, it would have been an acute, catastrophic event and not something that developed later. I want to emphatically state that I do not think you had coronary artery or aortic damage from your cath. Your pains sound non-cardiac to me and it's just a coincidence that you developed chest pain when the cardiologist removed the catheter. You do not need any additional procedures. PAC's are benign and many people have them and do just fine. You should read some of the archived questions on PAC's/PVC's in this forum to realize how common PAC's are. PAC's do not portend an adverse prognosis and will not cause you to have a heart attack or to die. PAC's are precipitated by caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and stress so avoid those precipitants if you can. Again, I do not think that your atrium was damaged during the heart catheterization to cause you to develop PAC's. Since most people with PAC's have learned to cope with the premature beats, it is apparent that this problem can successfully be overcome. Finally, aspirin and vitamin E do not affect the results of stress tests (echocardiograms or thalliums). Thus, my best advice to you is to focusing on making positive changes in your life and not to dwell on events that from my perspective did not happen. Only by doing this, will you be able to overcome your current problems. Good luck.
I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
Dear Kristine, thank you for your question. I'll make a few points. First, you have normal coronary arteries - that has been proven by multiple stress tests and the gold standard test - a cardiac catheterization. The incidence of coronary artery damage or aortic wall damage in a cath is extremely low (around 1/2000). If that happened to you, it would have been an acute, catastrophic event and not something that developed later. I want to emphatically state that I do not think you had coronary artery or aortic damage from your cath. Your pains sound non-cardiac to me and it's just a coincidence that you developed chest pain when the cardiologist removed the catheter. You do not need any additional procedures. PAC's are benign and many people have them and do just fine. You should read some of the archived questions on PAC's/PVC's in this forum to realize how common PAC's are. PAC's do not portend an adverse prognosis and will not cause you to have a heart attack or to die. PAC's are precipitated by caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, and stress so avoid those precipitants if you can. Again, I do not think that your atrium was damaged during the heart catheterization to cause you to develop PAC's. Since most people with PAC's have learned to cope with the premature beats, it is apparent that this problem can successfully be overcome. Finally, aspirin and vitamin E do not affect the results of stress tests (echocardiograms or thalliums). Thus, my best advice to you is to focusing on making positive changes in your life and not to dwell on events that from my perspective did not happen. Only by doing this, will you be able to overcome your current problems. Good luck.
I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.
