Minimal ST depression, anterolateral leads

[Desertflowerchild]

So, I saw my cardiologist yesterday and, before seeing him, his assistant did a 12 lead ecg for him which showed sinus rhythym. The print out was sitting right in front my cardiologist and he said nothing about it, so maybe he can't read ecg's??? The ecg interpretation (from someone other than my cardiologist) was posted today to my portal and noted "minimal ST depression, anterolateral leads." I don't know when my cardiologist will actually read the ecg interpretation and get back to me, but everything I am finding online seems fairly negative to me. Any insights from the tribe?

Thanks for your comments. Whether on point or not, they did bring me some calm. It is quite wonderful to have support and knowledge from this community. To clarify, this was not something printed on the ECG scan but a review and interpretation of the ECG by a named individual, which was completed several hours after my appointment and uploaded into my health portal under test results . Fortunately, I am calm now and can wait until the cardiologist is able to respond to my message. Unfortunately, I expect his comment will be as ambiguous as usual - that it could be x, y or z and he has no way to know, full stop.

[waveylines]

I'm afraid I can't comment on the specifics of this. I would ask his secretary if you can speak to the cardiologist as you are concerned about what the ECG results said. It maybe he wasn't concerned by this finding so therefore didn't mention it to you.

[BobD Volunteer]

It is important not to take any notice of the computer generated "diagnosis" at the top of the print out. These are frequently wrong. Dont over think this. Your cardiologist will be well trained in understanding what he sees on the page. and able to better imderstand it than the computer.

NB Google can damage your (mental) health.

[Desertflowerchild in reply to BobD]

Thank you for your words. Yes, I am too anxious, google is not helping, and anxiety and stress are my worst enemies. However, my cardiologist and I had discussed what happened to me the day before I saw him, when I had a very scarey event that he thinks was likely caused by my heart pausing while converting from afib to nsr, but that possibly was a TIA or minor heart attack (he said he could not rule either out). What bothered me was that my cardiologist had no plan to try to determine specifically what had occurred, but just had me set another appointment with him in 90 days. So after that discussion, my anxiety was already high and then to see a few hours later that the ecg showed abnormal results (per a review and interpretation that took place by a specialist later in the day) was difficult. Hopefully, I will hear from his office today but I doubt it.

[mjames1]

A good EP completely disregards the automatic interpretation of the 12 lead. For that reason, I would also totally disregard it -- assuming that is what you saw online and it probably was --and only make a treatment decision based on the interpretation of an EP. I have had plenty abnormal ekg's based on the machine interpretation that my EP said there was nothing abnormal or to be concerned about.

Jim

[Speed]

In the time between having my ECG just before my appointment and seeing the cardiologist, I would see the print out, note the m/ch printed comment (initially I wrote interpretation) and Google it! Consultant would then happily explain why his professional interpretation may differ from the print out. I had total confidence in his ability / opinion.

Last time I had an ECG I noticed that there was no longer an interpretation on the print out. When I asked about this, I was advised that this was because some junior doctors had been just taking the print out comment as gospel rather than taking the time to look at and interpret the readings.