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)
should I wait ?
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.
should I wait ?
by mikeytambo, Apr 27, 2002 12:00AM
Dear Dr.
A little background...I am 40 year old female, with no risk factors except a little family history. suffered for about a month with exertional angina, normal ekg, normal nuclear stress
test.March 15 had unstabile angina and vomiting. Went to ER, abnormal ekg, troponin of 4. Had emergency angioplasty 100% well collat. RCA. the LAD is also blocked 70-80%. They didn't fix it then because they paddled me for irregular heartbeat.
My cardio said to wait and see if we should angio the LAD, I went to another cardio and he said a 70-80% block of LAD is not borderline, and needs to be fixed . He said with no angina it can wait till June to see if at that time the RCA is restenosing.
They got an optimal result with RCA. My current meds are zocor, foltx, atenolol 50 mg , plavix, and cozaar, instead of zestril which made me cough. Should I wait, or is this a ticking time bomb.Thanks , Debbie
A little background...I am 40 year old female, with no risk factors except a little family history. suffered for about a month with exertional angina, normal ekg, normal nuclear stress
test.March 15 had unstabile angina and vomiting. Went to ER, abnormal ekg, troponin of 4. Had emergency angioplasty 100% well collat. RCA. the LAD is also blocked 70-80%. They didn't fix it then because they paddled me for irregular heartbeat.
My cardio said to wait and see if we should angio the LAD, I went to another cardio and he said a 70-80% block of LAD is not borderline, and needs to be fixed . He said with no angina it can wait till June to see if at that time the RCA is restenosing.
They got an optimal result with RCA. My current meds are zocor, foltx, atenolol 50 mg , plavix, and cozaar, instead of zestril which made me cough. Should I wait, or is this a ticking time bomb.Thanks , Debbie
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-CRC, Apr 30, 2002 12:00AM
Dear Debbie,
To use an oft quoted phrase here "it depends...". The first thing I would review would be the cath films. A picture is worth a 1000 words and 70-80% could mean a lot of different things depending on where in the vessel it is located and the overall appearance of the stenosis. Second, if you are still having angina it should be fixed sooner rather than later. Third, it depends on how aggressive your doctor is about treating stenosis.
I think your doctors did the right thing by treating the vessel causing the heart attack first. Depending on the factors discussed above it may be reasonable to wait until June to make a decision on fixing the other stenosis.
To use an oft quoted phrase here "it depends...". The first thing I would review would be the cath films. A picture is worth a 1000 words and 70-80% could mean a lot of different things depending on where in the vessel it is located and the overall appearance of the stenosis. Second, if you are still having angina it should be fixed sooner rather than later. Third, it depends on how aggressive your doctor is about treating stenosis.
I think your doctors did the right thing by treating the vessel causing the heart attack first. Depending on the factors discussed above it may be reasonable to wait until June to make a decision on fixing the other stenosis.
Thanks