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I'm Having Trouble Diagnosing Chest Pains, and Don't Know Wh

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A couple months ago I went to the ER with chest pains. They did an EKG, x-ray, and blood work. They sent me home, I was back there the next night and they did the same plus a cat scan and found nothing. I went to a cardiologist and they did the tests plus a stress test and a cardiac catherization. He eventually decided there is a problem in my heart and he wants to do a procedure to fix it (though i dont really understand it) I decided to get a second opinion. The doctor did the same tests again and he thinks there is nothing wrong. Since the initial chest pains, it has only happened a few times, but then I got better at recognizing when I thought it was going to happen and I would just go to bed. In the past month or so, it really hasn't happened at all. I don't know which doctor to believe....


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replied April 6th, 2006
Heart Disease & Heart Attack Answer A680
From your account, you have been to four doctors: twice in the ER, then to a cardiologist, and finally to another doctor (cardiologist?). According to your story, it was the first cardiologist who singularly identified a condition with your heart and proposed a procedure. Coronary stress tests and cardiac catheterizations are used to diagnose or exclude angina pectoris. If the cardiologist found a coronary artery closed (the main reason for angina pectoris), the only procedure according to protocol is to implant a “stent” or conduct a coronary bay-pass. According to your symptoms and your age, Iit doesn't seem likely that you have angina pectoris. Angina pectoris causes chest pain during physical activity.
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