As you might already know, D Dimer shows the presence of a fibrin degradation product. Basically, it says that when you were in the ER, you had had a blood clot. The fibrin was degraded and the byproducts were still floating around. It told the doctors what had happened. However, there are also other reasons for elevated D-dimer other than clots in the arteries, such as infections, surgeries, liver disease. There are a lots of reasons.

If you're nervous about your chest pains (which is not an irrational concern, though it could be nothing), speak with your doctor. A good doctor would listen to this legitimate concern. That would be my suggestion. Until you know whether that's what this specific D-dimer showed, there's not much else you can do.

It's strange to me that the doctors didn't comment on the elevated D-dimer even on the records. But that may be just me.

So I emailed my doctor about this last night and she replied this morning with the following:

"The d-dimer is a very non-specific test. It is only of value when it is "negative" meaning below the level of 500. There are several reasons that may cause it to be elevated, one of which is pregnancy itself. The ER physician DID do further testing, based on your symptoms which prompted you to go to the ER. It is the reason he ordered the CT scan to look for a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in the lungs. The CT scan of course was negative for pulmonary embolism, which means it was NORMAL and you DID NOT have a blood clot."

I forgot to mention in my original post that I am pregnant. I wasn't aware that the CT scan of my chest was BECAUSE of the d-dimer results...I was never told that.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful that I didn't have a blood clot in my lungs, however that is not the reason I went to the ER. I went to the ER because of pain on the left side of my chest, which obviously makes me worry about my heart. My doctor said she'd like me to make an appointment with her after my baby is born to "further discuss" my "cardiac concerns". And that further tests may or may not be "appropriate".

To be perfectly honest, I worry that there IS something wrong with my heart, and the stress of labor is going to cause something horrible to go wrong during labor and delivery. Call me paranoid, but there it is.

~Lisa~