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What Point Can I Feel Confident That I Don’t Need To Run To The ER For Every Panic Like Attack?
Question: At what point can I feel confident that I don’t need to run to the ER for every panic like attack? On Friday night (early Saturday morning) I felt like I had a pain in my chest. I had been feeling dizzy at times for the past few weeks so I felt like something was happening and went to a stand alone ER. They did an ECG, medical history, X-ray and blood work and everything was normal so they sent me home after about an hour or two. No second blood work check for troponin increase. I came home and have been feeling stressed. I had been feeling nauseous on Monday and have felt better since, but I keep feeling like I get random pains in my chest every now and then. I am concerned they missed a heart attack and that I continue to have them. I reached out to a doctor on here, but want to get the opinion of a specialist. I always hear that you should call 911 at first symptoms of a heart attack, but if I’m experiencing those all the time do I go over and over?
Brief Answer:
I would explain as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello!
I understand your concern and would explain that a simple ECG is quite a sensitive test to detect the changes in myocardial infarction or heart attack, even in the first hours.
Troponin levels are checked when there are suspicious ECG findings, in order to correlate them to possible myocardial ischemia.
Anyway, I would recommend performing a cardiac stress test ( cardiac stress echo, exercise cardiac stress test or cardiac stress MRI) in order to be sure that there is no presence of myocardial ischemia and thus to determine if there is need to fear about a heart attack or not if the episodes of chest pain reoccur.
Hope you will find this information helpful!
If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me again!
Wishing all the best,
Dr. Ilir Sharka, cardiologist
I would explain as follows:
Detailed Answer:
Hello!
I understand your concern and would explain that a simple ECG is quite a sensitive test to detect the changes in myocardial infarction or heart attack, even in the first hours.
Troponin levels are checked when there are suspicious ECG findings, in order to correlate them to possible myocardial ischemia.
Anyway, I would recommend performing a cardiac stress test ( cardiac stress echo, exercise cardiac stress test or cardiac stress MRI) in order to be sure that there is no presence of myocardial ischemia and thus to determine if there is need to fear about a heart attack or not if the episodes of chest pain reoccur.
Hope you will find this information helpful!
If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me again!
Wishing all the best,
Dr. Ilir Sharka, cardiologist
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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