inferior infarct - Did I or didn't I????

Question

I am a 64 year old female. Last November, I was admitted to the ER with chest pain. The physician told me that my ECG indicated that I had had a heart attack in the past. I told him I had not as far as I know. He contacted my cardiologist who read the ECG and said I had not had a heart attack. This week, I had to go for pre-admission testing for gall bladder surgery. An ECG was done and the reading physician noted that I had an abnormal ECG which indicated an inferior infarct 'some time in the past'. Again, my cardiologist told me I had not had a heart attack in the past. I asked him why these doctors have asked if I'd had a heart attack and he said something about the way they were reading it. So, I'm puzzled. Should I get another opinion? Should I see another cardiologist? Is this something I should worry about?

This discussion is related to inferior infarct showing on my EKG.

kenkeith · Answer

I'm not surprised, doctors have large egos and don't want to be shown wrong...one of them is wrong, but I would go with cardiologist, he has his speciality at issue and liability if wrong.  Take care

niniiris · Answer

Thanks so much for your comment. You have eased my mind greatly. It makes much more sense now. I had a stress test and echocardiogram in November that my cardiologist said were normal and showed no damage to my heart. I just couldn't help but be a bit paranoid about the whole issue as you can well imagine! The ER doctor was so adamant about the EKG and kept insisting that my cardiologist was wrong, would you believe!

kenkeith · Answer

Conditions that may mimic the electrocardiographic features of MI by producing a pattern of “pseudoinfarction” include ventricular hypertrophy, conduction disturbances, preexcitation, primary myocardial disease, pneumothorax, pulmonary embolus, amyloid heart disease, primary and metastatic tumors of the heart, traumatic heart disease, intracranial hemorrhage, hyperkalemia, pericarditis, early repolarization, and cardiac involvement with sarcoidosis.

There are numerous benign conditions and to conclude a diagnoses requires supporting evidence from other sources as well coroborative tracings of other wave forms.  Requires a electrophysiologist, and the doctor's in question a probably reading a computerized output from the EKG software...as an example the computer will print out an abnormal test result if your heart rate is above 100 bpm, and there are many reasons why the heart rate may be fast at that particular time... There are numerous false positives, and no doctor should rely soley on a EKG reading.

Your cardiologist has more information than the doctors who aren't qualified to read an 
EKG.  But is possible to have had a heart attack in the past and not be aware, especially for a diabetic and an older individual.  Didn't the doctor accept the cardiologist's finding?