Blood tests they ran on me after my heart attack

[maldorf]

SOme of you have been wondering what they ran on me when they discovered my clotting disorder. I was just looking at the paper work from back in Oct 08 when they ran it. Here is what I could deciper. It may not be everything they did and I might have missed some details, but this is the best I can figure:

1. Beta 2-glycoprotein1

2. Anti-Phospatidylserine

3. Prothrombin G20210A ( I tested positive for this)

4. Hypercoag profile

Protein C activity
Protein S act
APC resistance
Anti-Cardiolipin IgG
Anti-Cardiolipin IgM
Lupus Anticoag DVVT
Lupus Anticoag Ratio (they used dilute viper venom for this one!)
Anti-thrombin 3
Clinical Consult -further testing may be desired in the clot dissolving system(fibronolytic profile.) Looks like my natural anticoagulatant system was normal but may need to look at the other profile. So all of these test for me were normal.

SOme of those tests in the beginning may be heart related. I must admit I know nothing about what they are for. i just listed what they did on me.

 

[Medic08]

I'm surprised they didn't check triponin levels. I'm sure they did while you were having the MI though Bc that's typically the deciding factor for diagnosing an MI Bc it's cardiac selective.

 

[maldorf]

I'm surprised they didn't check triponin levels. I'm sure they did while you were having the MI though Bc that's typically the deciding factor for diagnosing an MI Bc it's cardiac selective.

Yes, there were other tests run at the hospital the morning of my MI. That was one of them. The cardiologists all warned me that they had never seen levels so high, the highest they can remember ever seeing and have a patient live to tell about it. I guess im special!! It apparently was a massive heart attack according to those levels. My EF was below 20% after that.

 

[Medic08]

Yes, there were other tests run at the hospital the morning of my MI. That was one of them. The cardiologists all warned me that they had never seen levels so high, the highest they can remember ever seeing and have a patient live to tell about it. I guess im special!! It apparently was a massive heart attack according to those levels. My EF was below 20% after that.

I'm sure you were in a heart failure for a while which is why your EF was so low. The lowest I've seen was 8% and I couldn't believe it! Do you know which coronary artery was blocked? Its a little game I like to play when I see a 12 lead w/ an MI. I try and guess the artery involved lol. Highest tropnonin I've ever seen is 8.0. I believe normal is 0.0-0.4. This guy was really sick.

 

[maldorf]

I'm sure you were in a heart failure for a while which is why your EF was so low. The lowest I've seen was 8% and I couldn't believe it! Do you know which coronary artery was blocked? Its a little game I like to play when I see a 12 lead w/ an MI. I try and guess the artery involved lol. Highest tropnonin I've ever seen is 8.0. I believe normal is 0.0-0.4. This guy was really sick.

Well, to this day my echocardiogram comes back ejection fraction <20%. So I dont really know how low it is. I asked the doc and he said that anything below 20% they dont specify because it becomes rather inaccurate at that point.
Its been 2 years, so its not getting any better and at this point Im just hoping to maintain what I have as long as I can. My right main coronary artery was 100% blocked with a blood clot. I have major damage mainly to my inferior wall and some septum I believe. That part of my heart is highly hypokinetic. Im not sure what my troponin level was, but the docs made a big deal about it.
Even with my ef below 20% I havent showed any major signs of heart failure since I have recovered from the initial heart attack. Main thing I have now is arrythmias, but thats uncommon. The beta blocker coreg seems to have that under control now.

 

[kscowboy]

Hey Maldorf-When all of this happened, were you juicing really hard for a long time? Or were you a normal casual user? Can you share what your typical cycling protocol looked like? Do you attribute one compound over another as to the main culprit or was it just the length of use and the amounts? KS

 

[maldorf]

Hey Maldorf-When all of this happened, were you juicing really hard for a long time? Or were you a normal casual user? Can you share what your typical cycling protocol looked like? Do you attribute one compound over another as to the main culprit or was it just the length of use and the amounts? KS

I had cycled pretty heavy up to 2 years prior to the heart attack. 2 years and up to the heart attack I was doing lower dose cycles of just 750 mg test e/week and something like 200 mg deca or tren along with that for about 10-12 weeks( a totalt of no more than 1g/week AAS). I would then cruise for about 10 weeks on about 300 mg test e/week.

This was the first time I had ever criused. Before that I had always cycled on and off. I truly think that it was the criusing, never really ever getting off the drugs 100% that did me in. I dont think it was a coincidence that I had my blood clot/heart attack whiel I was practicing that. I must admit though that I had troubles too when I was doing those heavy cycles previous to that. I was once diagnosed with cardiomyopathy when I was doing about 2.5 grams/week of various stuff including deca and tren. Overall, i think for blood clots at least, it was the cruising that got me.

 

[kscowboy]

Thank you for posting many times about your experience. maybe just maybe, you will save at least one life on here.

 

[The Booger]

We regularly get people with Troponin levels 10+. A week ago we had a 47 year old with a Troponin of 19.2 or 19.4, I forget which. Highest I have seen along with all the nurses except my mom. She saw someone with a 20 before. The hospital I work at is one of the top ranked for cardiac surgery and MI intervention (about the ONLY thing this place does well.......proud to be part of that!).

Any Troponin over 1.5 docs start to make a big deal over it, it's pretty much a positive for a MI. 0.5-1.5 is "suggestive" but early on, yeah you can see them that low. Troponin is the newest blood test they use for deteching MI's. They are trying other ways, but that's the standard. Although they do still run Myoglobin levels too.

Sounds like you were VERY lucky that MI didn't kill you. It's amazing how long some people live with super low EF's. We've had guys in their 80's that have lived 10+ years with an EF below 20. Had one guy live 5 years with an EF below 10%.....he actually died from a hypoglycemic episode.

 

[maldorf]

Sounds like you were VERY lucky that MI didn't kill you. It's amazing how long some people live with super low EF's. We've had guys in their 80's that have lived 10+ years with an EF below 20. Had one guy live 5 years with an EF below 10%.....he actually died from a hypoglycemic episode.

Well, I asked the doc that cleared my artery out ,using that relatively new method of aspirating rather than using an angioplasty, how long he thought I had to live. I asked him not to bullshit me and be honest from what he has seen. He told me he figured 10-15 years, but that by the time I got bad I could get a transplant and be back in business. He was optimistic about the technology we will have by that time and mentioned stem cells. Who knows, but I think my options by then will be limited to the transplant. I know someday the transplant is in my future, but until then I plan on living an enjoyable life and acting out on all the things I want to do. Being young is definetely a plus to me. I guess less than 20% of my heart's function is more than the same on a much older man or someone that wasnt as fit as me. I still exercise regularly and try to keep up my fitness the best I can.

 

[maldorf]

Bump for those interested in testing for clotting.

 

[Vaxene]

I'm surprised they didn't check triponin levels. I'm sure they did while you were having the MI though Bc that's typically the deciding factor for diagnosing an MI Bc it's cardiac selective.

troponin I, cpk, and cpk-mb are the serial cardiac enzyme markers drawn 8 hours apart when heart muscle injury is suspected. it looks like all of the work done on him (that he posted) was dealing with clotting cascades and different clotting factors to see if there is an abnormal clotting disorder that is leading to the blockages.

i have to admit, those are pretty interesting tests. i work as a nurse in a cardiac icu in new orleans. we prep a lot of people for transplants and deal with external heart machines (TandemHeart), balloon pumps, and impella devices (google those bad boys!!). we frequently get patients in with EF of <10%, including several in the 5-6% range. i've also seen PLENTY of troponin levels over 50 (once the lab value hits that number, the report just reads ">50").

reading 12 lead EKG's has become second nature now. just seeing ST depression and elevation, i can tell you where a clot probably is (which artery in the heart) and approximately how high up it is. the heart is an amazing organ and i love taking care of those patients. good luck with your recovery road, bro!!

 

[Emptor]

Someone close to me has congestive heart failure and actually improved his ejection fraction by taking COQ10, specifically the reduced version called Ubiquinol. I know very little about heart disease and don't know if you could benefit, but it may be worth a look since it's cheap and apparently has no side effects. In any case, I hope you get better, Bro.

**broken link removed**

 

[BigDaddyBone]

Bump for those interested in testing for clotting.

This is good stuff...I don't want to go to the doctor and say, "hey I'm doing AAS and want to make sure that I won't get a blood clot". Do you think if I ask them to test for these disorders that would suffice? Or should I get a coagulation panel, and that would cover them all?

I've been toying with the idea of saying that a relative died of a blood clot, and acting like I am concerned about this happening to me...

Everybody says to get tested, but I'm not really sure for what!

 

[maldorf]

I'm surprised they didn't check triponin levels. I'm sure they did while you were having the MI though Bc that's typically the deciding factor for diagnosing an MI Bc it's cardiac selective.

They did actually and the docs said that it was the highest level that they had ever seen on someone that lived through a heart attack. The doctors eyes got really big when he told me, you could tell he was amazed. The doc was about 60 yrs old too so hes seen a lot.

 

[maldorf]

troponin I, cpk, and cpk-mb are the serial cardiac enzyme markers drawn 8 hours apart when heart muscle injury is suspected. it looks like all of the work done on him (that he posted) was dealing with clotting cascades and different clotting factors to see if there is an abnormal clotting disorder that is leading to the blockages.

i have to admit, those are pretty interesting tests. i work as a nurse in a cardiac icu in new orleans. we prep a lot of people for transplants and deal with external heart machines (TandemHeart), balloon pumps, and impella devices (google those bad boys!!). we frequently get patients in with EF of <10%, including several in the 5-6% range. i've also seen PLENTY of troponin levels over 50 (once the lab value hits that number, the report just reads ">50").

reading 12 lead EKG's has become second nature now. just seeing ST depression and elevation, i can tell you where a clot probably is (which artery in the heart) and approximately how high up it is. the heart is an amazing organ and i love taking care of those patients. good luck with your recovery road, bro!!

I had a significant depressed ST segment in my EKG when I arrived and thats why they took me immediately to the cath lab. Once in there they could see that I had 100% blockage of the right main coronary artery. It was amazing because I could see it up on the screen and watched them suck out the clot with the little capillary tube.

 

[maldorf]

Someone close to me has congestive heart failure and actually improved his ejection fraction by taking COQ10, specifically the reduced version called Ubiquinol. I know very little about heart disease and don't know if you could benefit, but it may be worth a look since it's cheap and apparently has no side effects. In any case, I hope you get better, Bro.

**broken link removed**

Yeah, ive been on the for over 1 year now and my last echo showed some improvement in my EF! Previously if came back at < 20%, and the improvement came back 20%-25% so it might have gone up as much as 5%. They dont give me an exact number but a range. It was scary to me when they told me less than 20% because that leaves a whole lot of room.

 

[maldorf]

This is good stuff...I don't want to go to the doctor and say, "hey I'm doing AAS and want to make sure that I won't get a blood clot". Do you think if I ask them to test for these disorders that would suffice? Or should I get a coagulation panel, and that would cover them all?

I've been toying with the idea of saying that a relative died of a blood clot, and acting like I am concerned about this happening to me...

Everybody says to get tested, but I'm not really sure for what!

Truthfull I dont fully understand what the testing procedure is. I would say that someone close in your family like a parent or grandparent had a clot and youre worried, I think your idea is good. Perhaps just act like the event just happened and thats why your going to run the tests. Only way it could backfire is if they ask for access to the relative's records. I guess that is worth a try.

The doctors should know what tests to run. You might mention that the relative had the prothrombin gene mutation when they were tested, and that would cause them to run a DNA test for that. I had both of my parents get tested like that. Only problem with that is that it is only one disorder of many that can cause clots.

 

[Vaxene]

I had a significant depressed ST segment in my EKG when I arrived and thats why they took me immediately to the cath lab. Once in there they could see that I had 100% blockage of the right main coronary artery. It was amazing because I could see it up on the screen and watched them suck out the clot with the little capillary tube.

they took you straight to cath lab so that they could open the artery up. ST depression means that a certain part of the heart (based on whichever leads are depressed) are not getting blood flow, but the muscle isn't dead yet. when ST elevation occurs, it's an active infarct and muscle is dying. they were doing their best to re-establish blood flow in order to save the muscle. good thing they did. the CCU i work on is 32 beds, about to expand to 36, and we get probably 6-12 heart cath patients a day who came in with STEMI or NSTEMI

 

[Vaxene]

Truthfull I dont fully understand what the testing procedure is. I would say that someone close in your family like a parent or grandparent had a clot and youre worried, I think your idea is good. Perhaps just act like the event just happened and thats why your going to run the tests. Only way it could backfire is if they ask for access to the relative's records. I guess that is worth a try.

The doctors should know what tests to run. You might mention that the relative had the prothrombin gene mutation when they were tested, and that would cause them to run a DNA test for that. I had both of my parents get tested like that. Only problem with that is that it is only one disorder of many that can cause clots.

if you tell a doctor that you had a blood relative, especially a male, die from a heart attack or stroke at a young age, you'll be classified as higher risk and blood work will be done more often along with physicals and baseline EKG, stress tests, etc. coagulation studies (PT/INR, APTT, etc) can be done as routine labwork, along with Hgb and Hct, but some of the gene mutation studies wouldn't really be normal testing....