Suggest Treatment For Health Anxiety And Extreme Panic Attacks About Heart Attack

Posted on Thu, 21 May 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 21 May 2015 Answered on

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : age 39 , sufferer with health anxiety and extreme panic attacks.. misinterpret panic attack for heart attack due to father passing at a young age of MI ... it would be no lie if i was to say that ie had 100 ecg prints this year ! and now at times and more times not . im told its showing a inverted p wave ... should i be worried ? bloods at hospital was clear of no mi the last time it showed as a "small change" on the ecg printout.. my gp said that he had seen it before... could actually the tightness etc be heart related after all ?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
MI is excluded with a great certainty.

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, I would explain that facing your actually performed resting ECGs and lab tests, a MI is excluded with a great certainty.

So you have to relax after all!

P wave invertion on ECG is generally explained by several reasons, other than MI.

I would like to review your prior ECGs, if it is possible. So, please, could you upload them!

Regarding your chest discomfort, I would recommend you to perform a cardiac ultrasound and an ecercise cardiac stress resting.

Regarding your possible P wave invertion alternation, I would recommend to perform an ambulatory ECG monitoring test (Holter).

I also recommend you to be aware of possible coronary risk factors (like dyslipidemia, possible smoking contact, glucose intolerance, hypertension, etc), for a better prevention of future coronary events.

Hope to have been helpful to you!

Feel free to ask me whenever you need! Greetings! Dr. Iliri

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Shanthi.E