Expert: David Richardson - 8/23/2007

Question
I am 25 years old and about 6 months ago I was told that I had an abnormal
EKG after experiencing dizziness and some chest tightness.  Blood work was
done and all showed that I had not had a heart attack.  I beileve the EKG had
dips in 4 leads.  The EKG was repeated by two other doctors, and all came
back exactly the same.  I had an Echo, which they said came back normal.  I
was then sent to a cardiologist, who did a stress test.  I ran for about 9
minutes with EKG hooked up and then had another Echo done.  After,
ANOTHER resting EKG was done.  The cardiologist said all looked fine with
the echo and the stress test.  He also said the my EKG is abnormal, but that's
just how mine is.  My question is: Can you have an abnormal EKG and still
have everything be fine?  I've been worried about this for the whole 6 months
now.  Thank  you for your time.

Answer
Dear Macy,

Sure.  EKG's can look abnormal when nothing at all is wrong with the heart.  With a normal echo stress test, you know your heart is normal.  Echo is MUCH more sensitive than EKG.  You can forget about the EKG, except keep a copy so if you go to a hospital the docs will know your EKG is unchanged.

Please write back if this note doesn't answer all your questions.

David Richardson