Suggest Treatment For Severe Right Shoulder Pain In A Person With A Heart Condition
my father in law had a bypass surgery in 1996 and has a stent. for the past week he has been complaining of pain in his right shoulder and shoulder blade as well as cough.
I have attached his latest ECG, sugar and last prescription.
could you please advice.
Needs further assessment & assistance - may not be heart related...
Detailed Answer:
Hi friend
Welcome to Health Care Magic
The combination of cough and shoulder pain suggests probable infection…
With a background of Diabetes and CAD with stent – we have to exclude heart problem, even if the symptom is not typical, as here.
A single ECG is not diagnostic – especially because of pre-existing changes.
Generally, we repeat it after 6 hours and 24 hours to make sure there are no new changes…
Blood test for cardiac markers (Troponin, CK) are also done and repeated to exclude recent heart insult.
An orthopaedic assessment will evaluate the shoulder better
A simple X-ray chest can shed light on cough
If all well, the wise course is to go CT angio (to evaluate structure) and Stress imaging (Thallium isotope study) to evaluate function of the heart blood vessels… there may be progression of the problem in old blood vessels or new development in other vessels
Good luck
God bless you