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Heart Disease Community
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CTA accurate?
by momto2, Oct 26, 2007 07:50AM
Hi! I am 41y/o female.non- smoker. no family hx. heart dx. I have hx frequent PVCS (10,000/day). I have been having pain in the center of my chest along with pain in my shoulder blades and sometimes in my upper arms. No SOB or diaphoresis. I had a nuclear stress test done that showed subtle distal anterior ischemia. I get mixed comments about this from physicians. They tend to think this was a false positive since I am a younger female and all other aspects of the stress test was WNL. However, some have said that if this was truly a false positive it would have been positive in both the resting and stress parts of the nuclear scan. Anyway, the cardiologists did order a CTA. Apparently from what I have read this test is not for everyone because of the accuracy of picking up soft plaque. The scan showed I had a 0 calcium scoring. I am happy about that but still wondering about the stress test and the validity of the CTA. Does the CTA show more than what I am aware of? Do you think it is safe to assume this pain is not my heart? The cardiologist seemed very comfortable with interpreting the CTA and said for him it was just as accurate as a cath. Could the frequent PVCs have effected the stress test? The articles I have read about the CTA may not have been current so maybe the technology has improved? I really just want to relax about my heart so I can start researching what else that might be causing this pain (gallbladder?)
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