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Stress Tests and Women

Good morning!

I attended to the ER on Tuesday evening after a strange sensation in my chest (i am female and 41). I would describe it as a light pulling sensation. Defintely not pain but odd nonetheless. I then panicked, broke out into a sweat and went to the ER. The ER Dr. did all of the appropriate troponin testing x 2 (8 hrs apart) as well as 3 ECG's and everything came back normal. He then suggested going for a treadmill stress test which I did today. I got my heart rate up to the required 160 bpm with no pain etc. The results of the stress test were "normal". I am now reading that stress tests in woman very often given false negative results. I don't have high bp, or high chlosterol, I am overweight and wroking on getting it down, no diabetis etc. Realistically no risk factors. I also have no immediate family memebers with heart disease (grandparents, mother, father, sisters). I do suffer from GERD and take 2 x 40mg Nexium daily. A recent scoped showed everything was fine. Despite all of this i'm very concerned about how accurate that stress test was. Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated
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Avatar universal
Thanks for your response Dave.  I had a normal ECHO in January of 2012 and my bp and my cholesterol are normal.

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Avatar universal
The troponin tests and EKG’s pretty much prove that you were not having an MI the night of the ER visit. Furthermore, you do not seem to be reporting any concerning symptoms aside from the chest pain, and even there it is encouraging that the discomfort may be attributable to the history of GERD. Nonetheless, if you are still concerned or feel new or worsening symptoms, I would encourage you to make an appointment with a cardiologist and talk about getting an echo to rule out structural heart issues. You could also ask about a repeat stress test or even a stress echo for further peace of mind. If all these tests and the consultation with your doctor goes normal then I would think that might be the end of your journey, but if any of the results concern the doctor they might order an angiography or a cardiac MRI to look for clogged arteries (CAD, cornorary artery disease). Blood tests for LDL and HDL cholesterol as well as serum glucose may help in terms of finding out if pre-diabetes or high cholesterol is an issue given the fact you say you are overweight. Also, I would check for hypertension. But overall, I would say that nothing at this point sounds very alarming.
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1807132 tn?1318743597
To be honest I can't speak to the science and reliability of the stress test but what I can say is it doesn't sound like you have any concerning symptoms.  I am not certain what you were feeling but it may not even have been cardiac in nature.  The ER is pretty good at detecting if a person has had or is in an dangerous cardiac event so in general it sounds like your heart if fine but if you still have concerns you should just go and seek a second opinion.  That said, I wouldn't put too much stock into stories that make claims one way or the other because the story always seems to change like the wind.  Just work on finding a doctor you feel confident about and can trust and let them help guide you with all your health concerns.  Take care.
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