I was wondering how can a dr tell if someone has a clogged attery/ Like can they just tell by a ekg are they?

Question

accurate at all?Also my question is how do you know if your having a heartattack or its an anxietyattack seriously.lol because I get chest pains and it scres the daylights out of me.

Answer 1

The EKG changes are associated with changes in electricity passing through the cell as it normal would assuming everything is working normally. There are certain patterns that are recognizable and correlate to certain injury conditions (typically associated with a clogged artery.) Having said that there are people who have a full blown heart attack and do not have significant changes in their EKG (aka Non q-wave or Non S-T Elevation Myocardial Infarction). So an EKG is not by a long way 100% accurate.

Stress studies (either on the treadmill or medically induced) and then with a nuclear or echocardiogram study. These studies usually show whether the muscle is getting blood supply at about 90% accuracy.

If your symptoms are prompted reliably with activity and relieved with rest AND you have multiple risk factors (smoker, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, family history - heart attacks, open hearts, or caths - Mom, Dad and siblings)

OR

you have had a positive stress study

THEN

it may be appropriate to have an angiogram (aka cardiac catheterization) to identify if you have any coronary artery blockage, how badly, and where.

If you have no or one risk factor and you are a woman under 40, then it is not impossible but very unlikely that you have true coronary artery disease, causing your chest pain.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 2

There will be irregularities in the EKG but they can not tell absolutely if it is clogged until they do a angioplasty. Yes EKG are accurate. Some differences between cardiac chest pain and anxiety based chest pain are with a heart attack you will sometimes experience sweating at the onset of pain, shortness of breath, pain radiating down the left arm and into the jaw. Anxiety will cause hyperventilation which will cause numbness and tingling of BOTH arms and sometimes the legs, no sweating typically, and the chest pain will not radiate anywhere.

Answer 3

An EKG will give a good indication of an arterial blockage. Further testing, such as a stress test and/or CT Coronary Angio should follow. However, the gold standard is still the cardiac cath; if there is a clogged artery, chances are it can be opened during the cath.

If you are having chest pain, go see your doctor. He will look at all your symptoms and decide if you need further study.

Answer 4

If you get a discomfort in your chest, and at the same time you ear and jaw ache, on the right side in women, you need to call a cardiologist or have your doctor send you to one Probably it is Angina. I have had two stents, both times I had an angina attack. The discomfort goes away in a few minutes, but it will come again. that in my case was a clogged artery. My cholesterol was very good at the time, and the doctor called it stress induced because I had my mother and my husband both dying in separate hospitals and I spent 6 months running back and forth between them. two years later, (last summer in fact) I had another attack. I carry nitroglycerin pills with me and put one under my tongue and the pain was gone in a couple minutes, but I called him and he got me right into the hospital for my second stent. 10-12 years ago that would have been a bypass operation.. Don't fool around with this. Take care of it.

Answer 5

Clogged artery or arteries give a change in ECG/EKG (coronary arteries). This only reflects the state as to which part of the Heart is damaged e.g Inferior wall infarction. It can also give you info. on conduction system of heart e.g RBBB (right bundle branch block) etc.
The extent is assessed by doing an angiography e.g 1VD i.e. one vessel disease.

The amount of heart muscle is assessed by Thallium/Tc99 stress test.

Answer 6

An EKG may indicate a cardiac problem,but cannot determine arterial blockage.If you are having what you think may be recurring anxiety attacks you should see a doctor, they can be easily treated.