24 yr old HEART CT Angiogram??

[cookienkikin]

"I'm 24 yr old male with left side chest pain, radiating to left arm and left jaw with high cholesterol. Normal stress echo, echo, blood work, holter monitor, ekgs, and event monitor besides PVC's and SVT. They want me to have a 64 slice ct angiogram tomorrow and I just had a 64 slice heart CT for heart calcium scoring, which was negative. My questions are is 1.Is it dangerous for me to have that type of CT scan when I just had one, how bad is the radiation exposure, what type of risks? 2. They want me to take my xanax and a lopressor 25mg, before I get to the hospital to take the test so that my heart rate will be 60bpm, is that safe?, could you please explain this to me?? 3. I've had the contrast dye before on a different CT scan and no problems, will the amount of dye used for this affect my heart in anyway with the lopressor and xanax?? thanks so much?? I've had alot of CT's and X-rays for my age, is all this adding to my cancer risk from radiation exposure??  Should I have the test done?

[cookienkikin]

i still experience this every night. could someone please tell me what could be causing this?

8.what could it be when sometimes it will wake me up and it will feel as if my pulse is racing 100000 bpm, but I will feel my pulse and it will be REALLY slow with long pauses inbetween, but beating forcefully and then eventually will start going fast and i awake with shortness of breath?I only experience that kind when I'm woken from them, which is usually every night. I also can feel them while Im half asleep (dreaming) and then will awaken with them.  could it be pvcs, svt, v-tach, a-fib? anyone else experience anything like this at all???

[amiey2217]

i really dont know what they will be able to see. i'm sure they will get something out of it maybe just not as good a look as they may have wanted, but who knows. guess u just have to wait and see. i hope it all works out well.

[cookienkikin]

well im back now from having the test done and i took the lopressor and my heart rate was at 68 bpm, and when they started the scan and injected the "contrast dye" the warm feeling in my throat and whole body started coming on and my heart rate went up to over 100bpm while scanning and the tech said that they dont know if any of it will be of any use at all bc of the high heart rate during the scan. will they beable to tell anything from this? was it pointless bc of my high heart rate and i went through alot of radiation exposure for nothing??? thanks so much"

[amiey2217]

I went through a very similar experience and had almost the exact same questions. I am 28 years old and had an ablation for SVT and wound up with pericarditis. I had about 6 chest CTs with contrast dye and at least a dozen chest xrays. They wanted to do the CT test you are thinking about. I scheduled it and went to speak with the doctor beforehand about it, because it is a considerable amount of radiation exposure. in the end, i chose not to do the test because the risks outweighed the benefits for me. I also spoke to a radiologist about the exposures I have had thus far and talked about my risks due to the exposure. It is not an exact science, the amount of exposure that effects one person negatively, may not impact another person at all. It is all in how your body reacts to it. The lopressor and xanax would have no impact with the angiogram dye, so that part you shouldnt worry about. I suggest that the next thing to do would be to talk to ur doctor about the risk/benefit ratio for the test. The radiation exposure is certainly something that should be considered and you should bring up your concerns with the doctor. If the test would be able to diagnose you for something significant and they feel it is very warranted and not just a "lets try this" then I think it is something that you should consider doing. On the other hand if it is a "well we have tried everything else and now let try this" thing, then maybe you should reconsider. I hope this helped a bit. Just know that you are not alone. Good luck!