Stress Test

[john999]

I had a stress test and an echocardiogram today. The Stress test was a bummer as they could not get my heart up to 140 beats a minute before my feet and legs turned to rubber and I nearly fell on my face. Hey, I am 58 years old for God's sake. My normal heart rate is about 60 so I have to double it plus 20 beats to be in the zone to detect a problems they said. How could any person with foot,leg or back problems do a stress test on an elevated treadmill track without killing themselves I don't know. It was going so fast I was yelling for them to shut it off before I took a crash dive. I think that stress test is useless. They did not see anything bad, but if they did I would probably have had a heart attack before the test was complete. The echo was of poor quality just like the last one I took. Going to the VA for testing or treatment is dangerous. Now my back is hurting like hell. If you want a heart attack get a stress test.

[Ron II]

They can give you a chemical stress test that will get you up where you need to be.

Good Luck

With a low heart rate you probably are ok anyway. Why did they think that you need the test?

The VA still uses the archaic METs testing via a stress test to assign a METs level that equates to a certain level of heart efficiency. My private cardiologist laughed when I asked him for the METs associated with my testing. He was willing to break it down, but since my test showed concentric

LVH, that was good enough (I think...claim still pending) for an increase from 10% to 30%.

Ron

[purple]

during my last chemical stress test, about halfway through i told them to stop because i felt so bad....they (the nurse and technician......there was no cardiologist in the room!!!) refused to listen to me. well, sure enough......i must have passed out because i woke up to a room full of folks and all kinds of shit being done to me.

and yes, i did tell the nurse "told you so".

[john999]

Ron

The VA said on my echo that I had LVH but the C&P exam said I had no heart problems at all. How can that be? I take HBP pills because my private doctor said that LVH and HBP is a sign the heart is working too hard. The VA did say I had vascular artery disease. All this is secondary to DMII. I got a 0% rating.

[Ron II]

Ron

The VA said on my echo that I had LVH but the C&P exam said I had no heart problems at all. How can that be? I take HBP pills because my private doctor said that LVH and HBP is a sign the heart is working too hard. The VA did say I had vascular artery disease. All this is secondary to DMII. I got a 0% rating.

Hi John,

I don't understand that at all. And...maybe I am in for a rude awakening when my new evidence is reviewed. I have a copy of the VA's 2000 training manual on cardiovascular disease and it states, cardiovascular disabilities f there is heart enlargement on X-ray, you can rate at a minimum of 30% based on that, but you should also have a METs assessment in case it warrants a higher evaluation.

38 C.F.R. § 4.104 Schedule of ratings—cardiovascular system states

§4.104 Workload of greater than 5 METs but not greater than 7 METs results

in dyspnea, fatigue, angina, dizziness, or syncope, or; evidence of

cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation on electrocardiogram,

echocardiogram, or X-ray 30 [percent]

---------------------------------------------------------

I don't see how you are not rated at least at 30 percent.

Edited November 7, 2008 by Ron II