Is an ECG enough???

[clarelou]

Hey Everyone,

I have suffered from health anxiety for the last 3 yrs which is not much compared to some of you, however in the last few days I have felt short of breath, odd twinges under my left breast, sickness and diarrohea for the first few hrs am. I am really scared I have a heart problem. Doc has done ECG's around July time which were clear apart from some sinus tachy, (fast pulse).

I am taking 20mg of citalopram daily, and beta blockers 80mg twice daily

Please help I'm worrying stupidly and probably making my symptons worse!
I'm 37 xx

Thanks, hope everyone is well xx

[blueangel]

Hi there

From what I know, an ECG is the first line of diagnosis for anything wrong with the heart, as if anything abnormal shows up in the trace, that will then prompt a GP to send a patient for other cardiac tests. I would have thought that it was pretty unlikely for someone to have a hart problem that gave them a normal result on an ECG, but why don't you have a chat about it with your doctor?

[PokerFace]

ECG is enough! They're pretty accurate and would be able to tell if you had something wrong. Some one who's had a heart attack told me that heart pain is not felt on the left side so your pain might be muscular. Maybe you're short of breathe because you're feeling anxious about your heart so you're over breathing, horrible side effect! You could pop to the doctors just to put your mind 100% at rest. I hope you feel better soon xx

[nomorepanic]

Yes pokerface - a heart pain is usually felt in the middle of the chest and not by the heart.