Ectocardiogram?

[lph]

Now that's what I call truly useful answers

I'll be biking down to the medical centre anyway, and now I'll be sure to wear reasonably clean shorts and a sports bra (my usual commuting clothes aren't really fit for close encounters) , and bring an lightweight Capilene top in case the sports one is too much. And a camera so I can snap photos and publish them on the 'net for money...

Ultrasound? Cool. I thought you couldn't see the bloodstream unless you had an angiography, and for that you have a contrast dye injected. My father had one of those, after taking an exercise ECG (EKG?) first which showed that his heart was having trouble under stress. The angiography showed that despite very mild symptoms he had 5 almost blocked arteries He had a successful bypass operation 3 weeks later.

(Hence my reason for getting an ECG even though I have no symptoms, father with symptomless heart trouble and a brother who just dropped dead.)


PS. Electrocardiogram. Electrocardiogram. Electrocardiogram. Echocardiogram is the ultrasound one. Ectocardiogram is to check for phantom pain, I guess. ;-)

[SJCzar]

I had a stress echo last fall. My heart beats a bit unusually and makes for an abnormal looking EKG, so my family doc had me go in for one. We also have a family history of early heart disease.

Mine was on a treadmill not cycling. After they hooked me up they had me practice going from the treadmill into the bed quickly so they could get the ultrasound picture while the heart was still beating rapidly. After a few practice runs they started up the treadmill. Every 3 minutes they speeded it up again. The techs said it was fun to have someone who exercised regularly because they had to get me to a full out run before my heart rate was high enough for the ultrasound. All that cycling really does pay off. The cardiologist determined that while my heartbeat was a bit different then most people, my heart was working just great.

[doc]

Ultrasound? Cool. I thought you couldn't see the bloodstream unless you had an angiography, and for that you have a contrast dye injected. My father had one of those, after taking an exercise ECG (EKG?) first which showed that his heart was having trouble under stress. The angiography showed that despite very mild symptoms he had 5 almost blocked arteries He had a successful bypass operation 3 weeks later.


PS. Electrocardiogram. Electrocardiogram. Electrocardiogram. Echocardiogram is the ultrasound one. Ectocardiogram is to check for phantom pain, I guess. ;-)

Correct. Contrast dye coupled with xray technology is one way to view vessels. (also contrast dye and MRI to view vessels which is actually called MRA in that case) Some vessels can be seen by ultrasound. There is something called color flow doppler which shows blood flow.
EKG and ECG are the same thing. EKG is the old term

[lph]

Okay, had my eLECTROcardiogram today...

I asked nicely if could I please have the exercise bike and not the treadmill, as I was afraid I'd just fall off... Weird experience. Very glad to have some warning from you guys, or pedalling along sweaty and topless with a bunch of wires hanging off me would have freaked me out a little. Impossible to wear even the skimpiest sport top, I would have had to have something distinctly bondage-like to miss all the wires...

But everything looked normal, I pedalled my heart out, so to speak, and the dr said it looked just fine.

And re: my brother - he said that almost everybody over the age of 30 has some plaque in their blood vessels, and when younger people die it's often just plain bad luck, that a piece has come loose and got stuck somewhere else. And that smoking is the real bad biggy when it comes to heart disease, just smoking one cigarette will squinch your blood vessels together.
Unlike lung disease, where the number of cigarettes a day is important.

I am so done with seeing doctors now. Back to my regular life, thank you very much.

[spokewench]

Glad everything tested out okay! I hope the results made you feel more comfortable about your health

[Bikingmomof3]

I am very happy the tests came out well.

[lph]

Well - since I had another ELECTROcardiogram (can't BELIEVE I wrote ectocardiogram first time round, I'm such a spelling nazi) scheduled today I did a search on TE to see if anybody had said anything about it recently. That turned up mostly my own thread, so I might as well update here...

Anyway, everything went just peachy. I asked for this check-up after just a year since in the meantime my mother has also had a small heart attack. She's doing great (basically denying it ever happened, I think...) but now I am the only one in my close family who has not had serious heart problems.

So I got the treadmill this time, instead of the bike. Got all kitted up with wires hanging all over, looking like something out of Matrix (only without Trinity's sexy outfits), "hiked" briskly up to a pulse of 180 at which point dr. said to stop. My max HR is higher (180 didn't feel like that much of an effort) but he said there were no anomalies so far and wouldn't be any with a higher HR. My blood pressure is a little low, which explains why I get dizzy quite often, but is otherwise a good thing.

I'm going to get tested for a genetic disposition to embolisms though, some kind of pre-disposition that 7% of the population have. But since I'm not on the pill and I don't smoke the dr. wasn't overly concerned.

So I think I just got told that I'm as healthy as everybody keeps telling me I am but I have trouble believing in Sort of on a buzz tonight... even though I didn't think I was worried I obviously feel a bit vulnerable about this, and then there's nothing like being told your health is excellent! Ok, so I'm a bit dense.

[bmccasland]

lph - glad to hear there's scientific proof that you have a healthy heart. And a year later, it's still a happy healthy heart.

[maillotpois]

I'm going to get tested for a genetic disposition to embolisms though, some kind of pre-disposition that 7% of the population have. But since I'm not on the pill and I don't smoke the dr. wasn't overly concerned.

Harumph. you may be the spelling nazi, but I am the embolism nazi. follow up on that, ok? even w/no other risk factors, the genetic predisposition to clot is serious stuff.

it only takes ONE risk factor for an embolism.