st depression

[questiongirl529]

At my regular check up my dr found st depression. he wants me to have a stress test
I am female, 49, not overweight, no diabetes, take toprol 25 for high blood pressure which manages it. Haven't had a cigarette for 15 years do'nt drink ( a glass or two of wine a week). Eat healthy.
I panic at doctors and my heart rate during the  test was 93 as opposed to my normal 60.
I'm very stressed and don't want to go down the rabbit hole of testing if not necessary. Could the st depression be caused by me being in a panic during the ekg?  I have no symptoms. Feel fine. Now suddenly I'm worried I have heart disease!

Any thoughts are welcome!

[CCFHeartMD19]

Heart disease is a very generic term. It depends on what kind of heart disease you are talking about. Several heart diseases can be completely cured just like any other organ in the body

[questiongirl529]

heart disease can be cured? I understood it could be slowed down or halted but not cured.

[CCFHeartMD19]

Toprol is a beta blocker that is a great medication for the heart. As I said, if you don't have symptoms suggestive of heart problems like chest pain or shortness of breath, the chances that you will pass the stress test are really really high. And it is better to find out early rather than later because most things in cardiology if detected early can be completely cured.

Good luck.

[questiongirl529]

Thank you that's very helpful.  My blood pressure is controlled by the medicatin (Toprol) that I take, but my doctor did tell me that I was dehydrated when he gave me blood/urine results.  All else was normal.  However, he said that dehydration could not cause st depression.  In any event, thanks for the good advice.  My only worry now is that my blood pressure and heart will be abnormal during the stress test due to panic (I'm a panicker!) and that will skew results and send me further down testing for wrong reasons.  

[CCFHeartMD19]

Hello,

It is hard to give you an accurate assessment of the situation without personally reviewing the EKG and you entire medical history but I will give you some general pointers that might be helpful.

First of all, ST depression at rest is a relatively non specific finding. There are multiple reasons that a person might have ST depression at rest including long standing uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Panic attack by itself is unlikely to be a cause of your ST depressions.
I would recommend pursuing the testing that is being recommended by your doctor, so that this matter can be put to rest.
If you are not symptomatic, it is very likely that all your testing would be completely normal.

Hope that helps