Nuclear Stress Testing

Thanks for your reply.  That has made me feel a bit better.

Sorry I can't help with the stent and pain after 6months pain free.  No one in the family has heart problems so no experience of this.  

Hopefully someone on here will be able to advise you.

Hope all goes well for you  Merry Christmas.

Thank you libralady13 Merry Christmas to you as well,honestly you got nothing to worry about.

Hi frank,

I'm not in the position you have asked about but I know others that have and also from what my cardiologist has said.

How blocked were you arteries, here unless you are having a heart attack at the time and the blockage is actually causing it they will stent immedietly , if it's just angina that you are suffering and have blocked arteries they usually don't do anything until they are 90 - 95 % occluded. Cardiologists now believe stenting is of no real value and can actually cause more trouble than what the stent is worth, and sounds like you are experiencing a bit of trouble now ? there could be a number of things causing your angina pain to return, from the stent moving, causing inflammation / irritation or another blockage somewhere else.

I am only going on what cardilogists seem to have found and other people with stents in and have had nothing but trouble with them. I have a 60 % occlusion in the right coroanary and 50 %  stenosis in the LAD and they won't stent, they say it's not enough of a blockage to interupt the blood flow to the heart.

Hi Samuels

Thanks for your reply,i had a heart attack in hospital 4 years ago and they put a stent in and for 4 years it was fantastic and that particular stent according to my cardioligist is still working fine,i was told at the time they did the stent that my right coronary was 40% occluded dont worry about this they said we can treat this with the drugs,4 years pass with no problems then i was out walking and i had this overwhelming feeling of doom come over me,i had never experienced anything like it before it was terryfying but only lasted about 15 mins and then it passed 2 days later sat in my study it came over me again and and then it passed again in similar time as before.I mentioned this to my doctor who immediately booked me an appointment with my cardioligist,when i told the cardioligist what had happened he had me do the stress test which showed active signs of ischemia which then led to another angiogram they then told me that my rca was now 90% blocked which really shocked me as i had never missed any of the drugs that i was on so the right rca had gone from 40% to 90% in 4 years.Next stage was angioplasty this was the second time for me and they stented my rca and said everything went well and the stent was stented successfully i felt fine and could actualy get a full lung of air and could walk 3 mile nonstop uphill i felt fantasticand then 6 months the pains have started again.These pains only ever happen at rest and never ever when ime out walking i can be sat there and pow i feel them coming on the spray does the job but gives me a banging headache.I have gone into lengthy detail with my response to you as hopefully it may help someone else out there who reads this or is actually going through the same symptoms that i went through,i have been reading about eecp Enhanced external counter pulsation its supposed to really work but costs a small fortune 10 k approximately,has anybody reading this heard of it ? or of anybody that has had it i would love to know as i have been considering it.

Cheers

Hi frank,

Sounds awfully simiilar to my cardiologists here, I was the same, I was getting chest pain for no apparent reason, had a cholsterol test done, was off the charts, dangerously off the charts, was put onto a statin it helped with the total cholesterol but triglycerides were still high and I had all the severe side effects of any statins available even the old fashioned questron powder so statins are a no - no for me, because my cholestrol was high the cardiologist wanted to see what my arteries were like, you guessed it....." Pristine condition " chest pains continued over the next 2 years, cardiologist at the time diagnosed me as the small blood vessels in the heart going into spasms, also had another angiogram in that 2 year time frame, once again arteries were in prisitne condition. the next 2 years chest pains were getting worse and more frequent, arrived at our local emergency department , nothing showed up on the ECG, waited on the troponin test, I was in the waiting room awaiting the result, A doctor came out with a nurse with a wheel chair and approached me and said I think you better come with us, once in a cubicle in emergency I was informed that I had a NSTEMI, me not knowing what that was at the time asked "what's that " the doctor said that I had or was having a mild heart attack so was admitted , very next morning I was carted off to the cath lab, one of those " pristine arteries " was now 60 % occluded, it was the right coronary artery, the cardiologist told me the same thing, the drugs would treat and with luck reverse the occlussion, I had another NSTEMI 8-12 months later, due to chest pain getting even worse I had another angiogram beggining of this year, the 60 % occlusion in the RCA was still the same but this time round they found a 50% stenosis in the LAD and that only took 3 years to get to that 50 %  , the other  pristine artery.

The cardiologist wanted me to have a dorsal fin stimulator to treat the chest pain, I don't know if that's the same as the EEP you are talking about ? it sounds like it's pretty close, stimulting, etc etc and the cost of it to be surgically implanted I was informed was around 30 K from memory, as you can see not cheap, it may of been a tad less but was definately a lot more than 10 K, this was going back 2 years ago, I saw another specialist in regards to this treatment and they  informed me that this isn't an appropriate treatment for angina, in my case prinzmetal angina, I didn't bother researching it because I was, as I said was told it was not an appropriate treatment for angina, they told me it was more for back injuries and nerve pain / problems.

I can see why they stented you then, it must be protocol where you are as well wait until it's nearly a"full occluded " ......90 - 95 %, but I do suspect that it maybe your current stent acting up or maybe even your arteries even spasming.

To fully understand what this cardiologist had to say about stents you would have to have been here to listen to him or  read his teaching notes and unfortunately he doesn't put them up on the " net " as he learns from other cardiologists. there's no doubt stents are life saving at the time .

Hello thanks for your reply.  I think mine is the other way round. I go on 5th January for the test when i will be given a drug to make the heart work harder with 2nd injection of radioactive tracer this takes between 2 and 3 hours.  I then go the next day for tests when the heart is resting this time for up to 2 hours. This is the information in the letter.  The leaflet which came with the letter says that on the first day after receiving both injections you have to wait 40-60 minutes then have photos taken whilst the heart is under stress.  This was the bit that worried me it seems a long time to have the heart under stress or is it gradual.  Well trying to forget about it and think about Christmas grandchildren etc.

Take care

Merry christmas to you.

Hi 🙋,seems like different hospitals do it different ways but still get same results,I was told in letter I could be there for 3hrs but I was only there 2hrs most,don't worry enjoy your Christmas .🎅 🎄.

Hi libralady,

Absolutely nothing to worry about, they have to by law inform patients the risks of every procedure as everyone has some kind of reaction to something or rather.

Yes where I am from that is how it is done, the scan done on day one and then the medication to speed up heart rate next day, although they give you a choice on which you want done first on an exercise stress test. They put the medication in gradually so that they can see different stages of your heart and how it's coping under stress.

Hello and thank you for your reply.  

That has reassured me I thought it must be done gradually.  

Take care and Merry Christmas.

Thank to everyone who was kind enough to reply to my original post.  

I had the stress tests done on 5th and 6th January as they were not anywhere near as bad as I expected.  The hardest part is laying still having the scans done but no pain involved here.  So anyone undergoing these tests please be assured and don't worry.

I got the results from my GP this morning 5 weeks later and I am glad to report that everything is ok.  No cardiac issues and referred back to gp to look for other causes of symptoms.  During this time a blood test revealed that I was on a too high dose of Thyroxine and since having it lowered all heart thumping and palpitations have disappeared and I can go for a walk even slighly uphill without symptoms.  Of course anxiety did not help.  For those of you who don't know overtreament of under active thyroid can results in anxiety, angina type symptoms etc.  Best wishes to everyone,