Stress echo

Posted By Kristine on November 03, 1998 at 10:38:17:







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.