Q:
I have had 2 stress echos and each of them have an NYHA Class I listed on the bottom. There is no mention of heart failure in the report. Is this just a blank that has to be filled in, so they put a 1? If not, can it be due to the fact that I was only able to complete 7 minutes before my heart rate got up to 156 and they stopped the test? Thanks for your info.
A:
I don’t have enough information to answer you. For that I need to know what your heart function is.
It almost sounds like your doctor knows you have some heart damage and is following you with regular stress tests that probably show a somewhat diminished exercise tolerance but otherwise no change, a good thing! For more information about heart failure look here:
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/heart-information/heart-failure
As far as your stress test is concerned, here is information about stress testing:
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/heart-disease-diagnosis/exercise-stress-t
Depending on your age, you may have reached your maximal heart rate, at which point there are a number of explanations for stopping at that point. These may be cardiac or non cardiac, such as fatigue, leg pains.
As you can see, there is a lot more that question!
Hope this helps,
Dr T
http://www.cardiac-risk-assessment.com/
(Graphic from Medmovie.com)