I had a cardio stress test done today and now I must go to a specialist for my heart.?
Hi I am 37 yrs. old and did my first treadmill stress test today. My Dr. said he needed to get some more testing done. He didn’t tell me exactly what was wrong with my heart. Now he is talking about some nuclear scan to look at blood flow in my heart. I am scared I have 2 young kids at home,and I feel like I could have something wrong with my heart. Please advise if you have any info on these type of tests.
luvmydoggies - I think it is too early for you to get yourself too worked up just yet. Even without knowing whether you have risk factors for heart disease, a 37-year-old woman is really at a fairly low risk for coronary disease.
The treadmill stress test is designed to look for EKG changes during exercise that can possibly indicate the presence of coronary blockages. It is well-known, however, that treadmill stress tests are somewhat less accurate in women compared to men. Exercise treadmill testing has a 70% likelihood of correctly identifying a person who has coronary disease. It has a 61% likelihood of correctly identifying a person who has NO coronary disease. In other words, even if you took 100 completely normal women, studies show that probably 39 of them would still end up with a "positive" treadmill stress test.
The nuclear scan is a much more sensitive and specific test for identifiying patients with and without coronary disease. It can correctly identify 85% of patients with coronary disease, and it can correctly identify 95% of patients who have NO diseasse. Your doctor probably saw some abnormalities on your treadmill stress test, but isn’t sure that they are real. The nuclear scan will be more useful to decide whether or not there is something to worry about.
Again, unless you have a family history of your mom and/or dad having a heart attack at a very early age (younger than 40), your risk of having heart disease at this point is very low. IF you doctor really thinks you have heart disease, the treadmill stress test would be enough to send you for a catheterization. The fact that he is sending you for another (better but more expensive) test tells me that he is not convinced.
My suggestion would be to call your doctor’s office and ask him to call you and review the reason for his concern. Since he is the only one who knows your history and knows the exact results of the stress test, he can tell you most accurately what his reasoning is. Hope that helps! Good luck!
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October 5th, 2009 at 1:40 am
luvmydoggies - I think it is too early for you to get yourself too worked up just yet. Even without knowing whether you have risk factors for heart disease, a 37-year-old woman is really at a fairly low risk for coronary disease.
The treadmill stress test is designed to look for EKG changes during exercise that can possibly indicate the presence of coronary blockages. It is well-known, however, that treadmill stress tests are somewhat less accurate in women compared to men. Exercise treadmill testing has a 70% likelihood of correctly identifying a person who has coronary disease. It has a 61% likelihood of correctly identifying a person who has NO coronary disease. In other words, even if you took 100 completely normal women, studies show that probably 39 of them would still end up with a "positive" treadmill stress test.
The nuclear scan is a much more sensitive and specific test for identifiying patients with and without coronary disease. It can correctly identify 85% of patients with coronary disease, and it can correctly identify 95% of patients who have NO diseasse. Your doctor probably saw some abnormalities on your treadmill stress test, but isn’t sure that they are real. The nuclear scan will be more useful to decide whether or not there is something to worry about.
Again, unless you have a family history of your mom and/or dad having a heart attack at a very early age (younger than 40), your risk of having heart disease at this point is very low. IF you doctor really thinks you have heart disease, the treadmill stress test would be enough to send you for a catheterization. The fact that he is sending you for another (better but more expensive) test tells me that he is not convinced.
My suggestion would be to call your doctor’s office and ask him to call you and review the reason for his concern. Since he is the only one who knows your history and knows the exact results of the stress test, he can tell you most accurately what his reasoning is. Hope that helps! Good luck!
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