Treadmill Stress Tests and Women

[cchafe]

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.

[skydnsr]

Agree with dolphin8808.  The negative stress test results were confirmed by EKG and bloodwork.  It wasn't JUST a negative stress test that you had; it was multiple medical tests that were all negative.  Maybe the best course is to take this experience as a wake-up call.  Use the scare that you had, and do what is necessary to protect yourself from having in the future what you feared you were having on Tuesday.  Try your best to make sure you don't have different test results in five or ten years.

[dolphin8808]

Stress tests can give false positives and negatives especially in women. But, I would not be that concerned if I were you. You had 3 great ECGs, normal blood panel etc.  Just work on getting yourself and keeping yourself healthy. That is the best way to prevent any future heart disease.