In the last couple months I have occasionally been getting chest pains when I take long walks (the pain stops when I rest for a few minutes). My doctor thinks it might be stable angina and has referred me to a cardiologist.
Anyone here have stable angina? How was it diagnosed? What tests? How was it treated? Did it get worse over a long period of time even with treatment? Other comments?
Thanks.
Hmmm, I was diagnosed with unstable angina five years ago and was never really clear on what made it unstable. I was having recurring severe chest pain that would go away after 5-10 minutes, leaving me shaky/sweaty. The events typically occurred at night, waking me from sleeping. One (or more) of these events apparently was actually a heart attack.
I had a stress test which I failed and a nuclear medicine scan of my chest. I’ve been fine since a stent was placed in an occluded coronary artery.
I have the stable variety. And although anything unusual that happens with your heart can be scary, there is a relief method that works well for me. No matter what I’m doing when it comes on, I sit down and breathe deeply and slowly, focusing my attention on my heartbeat. In, deep and slow through my nose, exhale through my mouth. (I don’t know if the nose/mouth aspect is important, but I don’t mess with it because it works.) It usually starts diminishing in severity quickly, and ceases after a few minutes. Not 100% of the time, but it works for me most of the time.
I’ve been having chest pains and concerned it could be heart related, but it turns out it wasn’t. Still, they basically did the initial tests for stable angina on me.
There was the generic tests: the EKG (done in the ER) with the blood enzyme check (to see if any heart muscle had been damaged). This was followed by a Holter monitor, which involves a device you wear around your neck with leads on your heart. This is so it will catch you when you’re actually having the pains.
The most basic one specific to stable angina is the stress test. Stable angina means that some amount of exertion causes the pain, due to the heart not having enough oxygen to work that fast. As such they’ll either put you on a treadmill with some brisk walking with increasing inclines to get your heart rate up (if you are healthy enough to try this) or give you a drug that will make your heart race (if you aren’t). The point is to see if they can induce the pain, while you are attached to the same electrodes (plus maybe a few more) as in the EKG.
I also had an echocardiogram for good measure, which is an ultrasound of the heart. They also had a few electrodes on me during that, too.
While I didn’t get anything else myself, I know about one other test that involves them using a dye to check for any blockages in your arteries.
For years, I’ve been having pain that’s in my back, right along where my bra strap is, a few times I’ve felt some pain them in my jaw. Its nasty, and I have to take a Tylenol for it. I plan on asking my doctor about it, if its been happening (maybe few times a year) for years it can’t be too serious.
IANAD
Just to clarify stable vs. unstable angina, here is a good link. Basically, at a high level, stable = occurs predictably based on triggers, i.e. exercise. Unstable = occurs more frequently and/or worsens with less exposure to trigger, i.e. occurs with progressively less exercise. Some treatment options are outlined on this American Heart Association page.
I’ll defer to the real doctors on the question about worsening, I suspect that would be dependent on the underlying cause.