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What Causes Chest Pain Along With Shortness Of Breath And Dizziness?
I went to the ER with chest pains, shortness of breath, dizzy couple times and pain in my back between shoulder blades. They did lots of lab work and my D-Dimer came back as 2.6-- they said that was highly elevated and wanted to do the Ct scan with contrast-- it came back negative. They now want me to follow up with family Doc and schedule a stress test. My family has heart disease. My brother died in his sleep at age 44 a year and half ago sir to heart and liver problems. My dad has 2 stints in his heart but they did not find anything on his stress test, but angiogram. What can be wrong with me? Should I do stress test or just do angiogram? Why is my D- Dimer elevated? THank you
Mon, 29 Oct 2018
Hello,
Elevated D-dimer indicated that there is thrombus (blood clot) formation and breakdown happening. Thrombus can be formed in any blood vessels in the body.
Given your symptoms, pulmonary embolism and coronary artery disease are major considerations. Pulmonary embolism has already been ruled out in your case with the CT scan.
So the next step would be a stress test to rule out cardiac ischemia. If EKS is completely normal, there is no need to proceed with angiogram at this point.
The stress test would be sufficient and stress test has fewer complications and is safer compared to an angiogram.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Lekshmi Rita Venugopal, General & Family Physician
Elevated D-dimer indicated that there is thrombus (blood clot) formation and breakdown happening. Thrombus can be formed in any blood vessels in the body.
Given your symptoms, pulmonary embolism and coronary artery disease are major considerations. Pulmonary embolism has already been ruled out in your case with the CT scan.
So the next step would be a stress test to rule out cardiac ischemia. If EKS is completely normal, there is no need to proceed with angiogram at this point.
The stress test would be sufficient and stress test has fewer complications and is safer compared to an angiogram.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Lekshmi Rita Venugopal, General & Family Physician
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