anxiety and echo stress test

[motif]

Hi,
Just got screening echo stress test done and doc says "something maybe is cooking" meaning that there maybe some blockage and recommend to do nuclear stress test which supposedly can show more.

My question is can panic attack affect results of such stress test? because just before I step into treadmill got anxiety symptoms like heavy and week legs, short breath, dizziness etc. Before I step into office I felt perfectly fine.
Also ECG I had also fine and my primary physician sent me for that heart screening on my request saying he doesn't see anything wrong.

thanks

[HM]

Motif,

Ask your doctor what he means by 'maybe something is cooking' - that just seems like such a vague and unhelpful thing to say. Demand an explaination.

There can't be a 'blockage' in your heart, if there was, you would have had an attack already (bearing in mind that ‘stress tests’ measure arterial blood flow to the left ventricle, the most crucial of all chambers)

Stress tests cannot detect build ups of lipids in the arterial wall, or ‘plaques’. They are used to test for ‘stenoses’ which is narrowing of the artery, and normaly the cause of angina.

If your doctor has found stenoses, this isn’t a major risk factor when it come to heart attacks – it can be treated with medications and also helped by lifestyle changes.

It’s lipids and plaques that normally indicate risk of infarction.

So whatever your doctors belives is, apparantly, ‘cooking’ it’s not an immediate risk to your health, so I wouldn’t worry. And in any case he said ‘maybe’ which sounds to me as though the result where inconclusive.

As far as whether panic would effect the results, I’m pretty surethe answers no. But again, ask your doctor.

Harry

[motif]

thanks Harry,
That doc made me anxious for sure, official result I'll get in few days.
I'll consult it with other doc because I'm not feeling like doing nuclear stress test. The funny thing is that I have very good all blood tests.

Anyway I just read a great book "Mind - Body Connection" and found that hardening of the e.g. coronary arteries, arteriosclerosis can be cause by emotions like stress etc. when exposed to for a long time.