Ectocardiogram?

[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.

[sgtiger]

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.

+1

[Lifts glass of sparkling cranberry juice]
Here's to your continuing health - heart and otherwise. Glad everything is working well.

[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.

[lph]

I will, I promise! Actually, I don't have to promise 'cos the dr. was going to follow it up for me

Search on the net brought up: something called the Leiden factor, which if inherited from both parents increases the risk of embolisms. 5-10 % have one set of this, 1 in 500 have it from both sides. Seems like they check every woman going on the pill now to see if they have this? I've never been on the pill and I don't think I've had the test. Simple blood test.

cheers right back at ya, with a cup of... oh - lukewarm green tea.

Zen - can you do the test on a stationary bike?