Abnormal EKG

[SEOINAGE]

Just curious if others here have had an abnormal EKG, and what they found to be the issue.

Long story short I went to a care facility to have mild chest pain looked at. After the EKG they called an ambulance. I went along with it even though I thought I was fine, no immediate threat after being at the ER so they released me to follow up with cardiologist.

ST & T wave abnormality. Consider inferior and anterolateral ischemia.

I haven't taken high doses in a year. And even then my blasting has been rather limited. On TRT dose, not sure that even is the reason for anything. It might be a bit longer still till I actually can even get things looked at further since they take so long to schedule, among other things.

 

[Sk8man101]

I think the concern was you could have be having an MI (myocardial infarction) aka heart attack. Probably why you ended up at an ER. These can happen to different degrees not all of them kill you. And although I'm not qualified to read them techniquly, I am pretty sure elevated T waves could indicate an MI.

Some people live long periods of time with abnormal EKGs. Just follow up with your primary.

Also I beleive that steroids can harden the walls of your ventricles (specifically the left one which pumps the blood to your tissues) and can even make the walls bigger/thicker. Which is bad. Because that means there is;
1.less space inside your heart therefore making it less efficient and it has to work harder
2. Your heart only has a certain amount of space it can fill relative to the body, you don't want added pressure against the heart.

Please don't take everything i say to heart(lol) cause I only have a basic understanding of all this.

 

[Sk8man101]

What was your BP?
And are you usually hypertensive?

 

[Old]

Get an echocardiogram. Its cheap and valuable info that will let you know about valves, chamber sizes, ejection fraction, and any concerns about Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. LVH is common enough and increased with TRT, AAS, GH, etc..., also "Athletic training" -- Intense, prolonged endurance and strength training.

You mention ST & T wave abnormaliy, here are 68 possible reasons for it (and only #37 relates to LVH) -- http://www.healio.com/cardiology/learn-the-heart/blogs/68-causes-of-t-wave-st-segment-abnormalities #54 is my favorite.

 

[SEOINAGE]

My dr ordered a stress test and a sonagram. I am normally around 130/77 +-10 on each.
It is going to be a while before I can even get these done, as I live in the middle of no where and I have responsibilities and major issues going on right now dealing with my father's estate that require me to travel when I get time off. It would be nice to make sure I'm not a ticking time bomb before I deal with other things, but circumstances don't allow it.

 

[Old]

I also buried dad and took care of estate - with uncooperative family members. Yea, stupid stress. Maybe recent events led to your symptoms. Now you've made your appointment, no point worrying. And don't worry about the results ... most people have small murmurs and stuff. Plenty of athletes with mild LVH too. A conscientious tech will check a few areas for aneurysms as well. Again a good test for anyone to have. Wish you success

Here is Wiki Echocardiography - Wikipedia

 

[SEOINAGE]

Thanks man. THose images are pretty crazy looking.
Biggest stresser at the moment is his widow is a trustee and holding all the personal property and refusing to release it to the beneficiaries like it is listed in the trust. And some things are worded poorly providing her a living allowance that is open to her interpretation, that and her taking funds out of trust accounts making multiple mortgage checks bounce, after she already stole everything out of the construction account and refused to pay any expenses for funeral.
But anyways, not the point of this thread. Just crap I have to deal with when I should be worrying more about my health instead.

 

[MindlessWork]

Yes your health is much more important right now as it does sound serious enough to need dealing with. Heart issues are no joke and hope things work out for you.

Also sorry to hear about your dad so my condolences. Not to mention those shenanigans going on with your dad's estate is deplorable and illegal imo. Get a lawyer to help you sort that out.

 

[SEOINAGE]

Yes your health is much more important right now as it does sound serious enough to need dealing with. Heart issues are no joke and hope things work out for you.

Also sorry to hear about your dad so my condolences. Not to mention those shenanigans going on with your dad's estate is deplorable and illegal imo. Get a lawyer to help you sort that out.

I have an attorney looking over documents this past weekend and meeting today with him. I just wish I had done this three weeks ago, and removed items and retained control of certain vehicles instead of handing them over. I will likely just have to miss work to make these dr visits work since I will need my weekends.

 

[MindlessWork]

I have an attorney looking over documents this past weekend and meeting today with him. I just wish I had done this three weeks ago, and removed items and retained control of certain vehicles instead of handing them over. I will likely just have to miss work to make these dr visits work since I will need my weekends.

Oh that's good, you need less stress in getting this all dealt with. Sucks to miss work but your health comes first.

 

[BBC3]

FWIW - I have had a few in the distant past. Some routine, others in ER I dont recall the reason. The abnormal ones were ALWAYS when I was younger under age of 30 and in really good stoked shape. Any time one was done was never for cardio suspect reasons. I don't even recall how they justified them. I think I mentioned a mitral valve prolapse diagnosed at 19, which btw has never been seen again in older age. So WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS. THAT EVERY SINGLE NEGATIVE CARDIO DIAGNOSIS I HAVE HAD WAS WHEN I WAS IN "TIP TOP SHAPE"... or OUT OF GENETIC 'PREDELECTED Pre-Determination".. AKA - not what I was supposed to be...

I would almost guess/suspect that all the unnatural muscle tissue was confusing/distorting the electrical signals at the leads...!

Just curious if others here have had an abnormal EKG, and what they found to be the issue.

Long story short I went to a care facility to have mild chest pain looked at. After the EKG they called an ambulance. I went along with it even though I thought I was fine, no immediate threat after being at the ER so they released me to follow up with cardiologist.

ST & T wave abnormality. Consider inferior and anterolateral ischemia.

I haven't taken high doses in a year. And even then my blasting has been rather limited. On TRT dose, not sure that even is the reason for anything. It might be a bit longer still till I actually can even get things looked at further since they take so long to schedule, among other things.

 

[SEOINAGE]

A little update.
Stress test seemed fine from what I gathered. Nothing changed as I got my heart rate up. Was up to 195 bpm sustained for a while too.
Sonogram wasn't evaluated by the Dr that will be doing so yet, but the Dr that did the stress test was assuming there would be enlargement of the walls indicative of what the EKG was showing, but that wasn't the case. Should know more after that is properly evaluated.
The girl doing the ultrasound said I had a good athletic heart at initial glance, much better than what she is normally looking at. And I went much further along on the treadmill than other people my age do.
Follow up in a little over a week.

 

[MindlessWork]

Good to hear, and once all tests are done you should have a good idea of your heart's true condition. It may well be a fluke your EKG was abnormal but you passed the stress test. Hope everything works out for your peace of mind.

 

[MisterSuperGod]

@hurricane has been to hell and back with his heart, he may be able to add to this discussion.

 

[hurricane]

@hurricane has been to hell and back with his heart, he may be able to add to this discussion.

As others have said, an abnormal EKG could be nothing. Many of us experience st and t wave abnormalities everyday. Most of the time its no big deal. If you were in afib or atrial flutter they probably would of kept you. An EKG is great if your experiencing heart issues at that exact moment. Besides that their worthless IMO. I'm a little surprised your echo wasn't read right away. That would lead me to believe the cardiologist wasn't that concerned. A stress test plus echo will show them everything they need to evaluate and diagnose your condition(if you have one). Obviously you were in sinus tachycardia at 195 BPM and having no issues. That's great. Any rhythm disturbances such as the ones I have probably would of shown up(not definitely though). Another great thing about an echo is determining your ejection fraction. That is a measurement of how much blood your heart pumps out after each contraction. Normal is around 55-60%. Mine was initially 15% when I was very sick. It has improved dramatically. Don't worry to much about a enlarged heart or the thickness at this point. Us bodybuilders have enlarged hearts(it is a muscle). I say not to worry because if the stress test or echo picked up anything abnormal I HIGHLY doubt you would of been allowed to leave. Your cardiologist will hopefully explain everything to you. If he doesn't ask him to explain his reading of the echo. Bottom line. Don't fuk with your heart. I'm glad you got help. Don't be alarmed if they make you wear a heart monitor for awhile to check any rhythm disturbances. Better to be safe and rule everything out. You being under a lot of stress at the moment doesn't help. I'm going to guess your fine from the fact that you weren't hospitalized at all for these issues. But I would be careful about future cycles. I hope all works out bro and positive thoughts are being sent your way. Keep us updated and stay safe. I'm happy to answer any of your questions. Just to let you know I have dialated cardiomyopathy, afib, atrial flutter, and inappropriate sinus tachycardia. I am hardly a medical doctor. But I do have a decent understanding of heart conditions. Best wishes bro. Check out Dr Scallys thread about AAS use and cardiac function.

 

[SEOINAGE]

They never told me anything about my ejection fraction. But told me I was on the low end of normal as far as how much the heart contracts. Otherwise the heart looks good visually, and is operating somewhat normal. He said it shouldn't put me at risk, nor shorten life expectancy. But he still wanted to investigate further with an MRI.

You think this is something I could call up and get a print out of the results of my echo?

One thing he was mildly concerned about was that my heart rate was taking so long to return to normal, and never really did return to normal. That and I normally have an above average heart rate. He mentioned a few things the MRI may show, but also talked about repeating tests every 5 years.

I haven't cycled in over a year, to be honest I have enough muscle, even right now with my lack of lifting more than twice a week, but it would be nice to be able to maintain it and drop some bf I have put on (I mean you could always be bigger, but not a priority for me right now). I picked 4 weeks of an over the counter Havoc, and was thinking of running that with maybe 250 mg of test a week for 4 weeks for a brief intense cut, maybe bump up my T3, then back to normal for a while. I've already been eating much less, pant size hasn't changed much and carrying more bf than I would like to though.

I think it's time I would like to get down to something like 185 lbs and 10-12% bf and stay there. I'm only 5'8"

The Dr did mention stopping TRT, but without being a huge risk he didn't think that was needed right now, but may require reducing dose as low as we can if problems arise.

 

[hurricane]

They never told me anything about my ejection fraction. But told me I was on the low end of normal as far as how much the heart contracts. Otherwise the heart looks good visually, and is operating somewhat normal. He said it shouldn't put me at risk, nor shorten life expectancy. But he still wanted to investigate further with an MRI.

You think this is something I could call up and get a print out of the results of my echo?

One thing he was mildly concerned about was that my heart rate was taking so long to return to normal, and never really did return to normal. That and I normally have an above average heart rate. He mentioned a few things the MRI may show, but also talked about repeating tests every 5 years.

I haven't cycled in over a year, to be honest I have enough muscle, even right now with my lack of lifting more than twice a week, but it would be nice to be able to maintain it and drop some bf I have put on (I mean you could always be bigger, but not a priority for me right now). I picked 4 weeks of an over the counter Havoc, and was thinking of running that with maybe 250 mg of test a week for 4 weeks for a brief intense cut, maybe bump up my T3, then back to normal for a while. I've already been eating much less, pant size hasn't changed much and carrying more bf than I would like to though.

I think it's time I would like to get down to something like 185 lbs and 10-12% bf and stay there. I'm only 5'8"

The Dr did mention stopping TRT, but without being a huge risk he didn't think that was needed right now, but may require reducing dose as low as we can if problems arise.

Well I'm glad to hear that there was nothing that set off any major alarms from your echo. What is your normal resting heart rate? Since you said it runs high. And what do you mean it never really returned to normal? The doctor will just want to check out your heart every few years to make sure no changes occurred. Not sure why an MRI. The only reason I ever needed one was because of my heart surgery. What did he say the reasoning for the MRI was for.

 

[SEOINAGE]

I can't remember exactly. Something to do with checking for invasive proteins or something like that. Basically just wants to rule out other possible reasons.

I got my report from them.
Left ventricle is normal size with normal systolic function. estimated ejection fraction of 50-55%
mildly dilate right ventricle wit hlow-normal systolic function.
No significant valvular abnormalities identified.

There's more details included but that's it in a nutshell.

 

[hurricane]

I can't remember exactly. Something to do with checking for invasive proteins or something like that. Basically just wants to rule out other possible reasons.

I got my report from them.
Left ventricle is normal size with normal systolic function. estimated ejection fraction of 50-55%
mildly dilate right ventricle wit hlow-normal systolic function.
No significant valvular abnormalities identified.

There's more details included but that's it in a nutshell.

Sounds good bro. Hope everything else comes out OK. Keep us posted. Your ejection fraction is fine. All my cardiologists and my EP would consider that normal. Stay safe

 

[SEOINAGE]

Figured I'd update. MRI was about what to expect. Just some more details about my heart, didn't change really anything, didn't find anything abnormal. Still have the abnormal EKG and figure that will just be the way things are. Still going forward I intend to Be cautious. I just do a lot of extreme sports, and am away from medical attention etc, basically if I happen to have a heart attack or stroke or other issue there's no getting me medical care in time.

With that said I haven't run a real cycle in two years. I took some minor pro hormones last summer during a cut, and really didn't get that cut.

I would like to start a new one, probably make a new thread about it here shortly. I'm down to 205 lbs, and still would rather cut than bulk. As much as I love being 230 lbs, I want to be under 12% bodyfat always now, and look forward to the day I can be lean enough to actually put the focus back on strength and a little muscle. Haven't competed in PLing in two years either, and did quite well in my last comp at 218lbs weigh in.