AboutDavid Richardson Expertise Adult heart function and disease. Not very good about children lesss than 12. Hypertension is o.k. Heart rhythm a special interest.
Experience Certified in cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Was chairman of division of cardiology at the Medical College of Virginia. Am now mostly retired.
Organizations Fellow of American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and member of American Physiological Society..
Publications Circulation, American Heart Journal, Hypertension.
Education/Credentials M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Residency training at Yale Uhniversity School of Medicine and Medical College of Virginia.
Awards and Honors Gold Heartt Award from American Heart Association in 1995.
I hope you remmeber me i am mark the one who sent you week ago my echocardiogram and ecg tests and results for chest pain short of breath and not improving.
2 days ago i was with my friend sitting in her car and suddenly my heart strted pumping like a heart attack one pump was so hard i thouhgt i will die and then short of breath numbenss and sweating , i did not go that moment to the ER i went back home but after 2 days i went to the ER because the day before i woke up at night short of breath, they did again the ekg at rest blood work and prtein c and k and i dont know what and physical and sent me back home and told me your heat looks ok.
The last test i did was yesterday and it is a stress ekg i did it yesterday and i did not take the blood pressure pill when i did it yesterday, she told me to stand and she took my blood pressure while standing it was 120/90 then i started walking level 1 for maybe 2 or 3 minutes my blood pressure was 130/89 then level 2 150/85 then level 3 maybe 160/82 then level 4 it was 170/80 and she stopped it right there maybe end of level 4 maybe 10 minutes of excercising maybe she stopped it because my blood pressure while excecising became high or maybe because of the heart beat or rate but i did not feel short of breath nor chest pain and i asked the tech how many levels are she said 5 and 6 but they are rare , anyhow i excercised for around 10 minutes and she said she will send the results after the doc look at them to my family doctor. so i dont know what this means.
So i do not know why my docotrs are trying to rule out any chest or heart disease and if it is anxiety is it something like disorder i can not control like my inner mind causes this to me , is my ekg stress normal or not, i am 34 male non smoker fit
Answer Dear Mark,
The hard pump was probably a skipped heart beat. The beat after the skip occurs when the heart is extra full of blood because of the pause during the skip, so it's extra hard. Skipped beats are normal heart activity, no threat to life or health. The shortness of breath, numbness and sweating all result from fear. The rise in bp on the treadmill is a normal (in fact good) response to strenuous exercise. 10 minutes is excellent. I barely made 7.
Please write back if this note doesn't answer all your questions.
