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)
testing
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.
testing
by briane, Jan 23, 2002 12:00AM
I posted yesterday and greatly appreciate your help . I have a few more questions. Would a cardiac cath totally rule out heart disese (disease) as a cause of my chest pain? Would the non blockage type of heart related chest pain be easier to detect or show up on testing like a ct scan of my chest which I just had or an ultrsound I had last June or a stress test with scans alittle over a year ago? I'm really hoping to find the cause of this. I also have two non related questions to my past problems. Could a large meal make your heart rate fast? I noticed last night after dinner my heart rate was like 124bpm? I also had an episode about 2 weeks ago when my blood pressure was was 148/110(unusual for me) and my pulse was about 136bpm. During this I had a burning sensation all over my body. Doctor said he thought it was from the prednisone I was taking and cut me back on it. I hadn't done anything else like that until the high pulse last night. Does sharp pains in your chest around the time of belching or buring sound more gastric than cardiac? Sorry if questions sound silly. Just really concerned . Thank You. I'm a 37 yr old white female . the only findings on my test were a benign irregular heart beat.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-M.D.-CRC, Jan 23, 2002 12:00AM
Dear love,
Yes, a cardiac cath would exclude occlusive coronary artery disease as a cause of chest pain. A CT scan can detect calcification in the coronary arteries but not soft plaque. Stress tests are about 60-90% accurate in their detection of coronary artery disease depending on whether an imaging modality such as echo or thallium is also used.
Large meals may lead to a slight elevation in heart rate but should not make it go >110-120 bpm. Brief sharp or burning pains associated with gastric reflux are more likely to be gastric in nature rather than cardiac.
Yes, a cardiac cath would exclude occlusive coronary artery disease as a cause of chest pain. A CT scan can detect calcification in the coronary arteries but not soft plaque. Stress tests are about 60-90% accurate in their detection of coronary artery disease depending on whether an imaging modality such as echo or thallium is also used.
Large meals may lead to a slight elevation in heart rate but should not make it go >110-120 bpm. Brief sharp or burning pains associated with gastric reflux are more likely to be gastric in nature rather than cardiac.
