Quote:
Originally Posted by dwk
Given my fairly decent level of exercise on the stress test, the lack of chest pain and the normal perfusion scan -- I'd prefer to go the aggressive meds and life style changes -- I just wished the stenosis was somewhere else.
Any thoughts, experiences? See the Cardiologist next week to go over my options.
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DWK, the information you provide is excellent but not complete technically. Check with your cardiologist to be sure. CTA = computerized tomographic angiogram, a noninvasive way of assessing blood flow in the arteries.
The normal exercise imaging despite ST segment depression on EKG is reassuring. CTA remains an unproven and iffy modality for coronary disease prognosis, and I personally find the nuclear study to be more consistently reliable, at least prognostically. I have seen discrepancies between CTAs or EB-CTs and cath results.
Whatever your cardiologist recommends, sounds like a good time to get your risk factors under serious control. Maybe he or she will advise repeating the nuclear stress after some serious lifestyle modification and statins for about 6 months or a year.
Blessing in disguise, if you get your risk factor act together. Do whatever your cardiologist advises, after reviewing all the options.
P.S. Now that I have confused everyone but you, the bottom line is that an experimental test showed the possibility of important coronary disease, while conventional studies were ambiguous at best. I am guessing that 6-12 months of major lifestyle modification and statins followed by a repeat nuclear stress test will be among the options discussed. Good luck.