Hello, I'm here because in the last month I've had mild unstable angina symptoms - discomfort in shoulders and upper chest spreading to both or left arm and outside lower jaw. I went to A&E and had standard same day tests including electrocardiogram, chest Xray, bloods (troponin etc). Everything was negative but they're treating it as angina, have prescribed aspirin and GTN and are referring me for a MIBI scan. That may be as soon as a month but no appointment date yet.
In the meantime I'm in the waiting limbo. I have some questions.
My symptoms are of unstable angina, i.e. happen at rest/night or after very slight exertion, never during strenuous work. But standard unstable angina is a symptom of atherosclerosis. I can't find the answer, but wouldn't any angina due to atherosclerosis show up during hard exercise first?
So I'd like to know the state of my arteries, which I don't think the tests I've had would definitely show. I'm looking at more affordable same-day tests. The gold standard nowadays seems to be a CT calcium score but I'm sure that would be pricey. Echocardiograms and Carotid ultrasound are more affordable. Would either of these tell me anything valuable? Even if it wouldn't change my treatment I'd like to know. If my arteries are clear then that surely rules out a lot and maybe even point to a non-heart cause. Should I go for either a Carotid ultrasound or an echocardiogram?
Lastly, will the MIBI show arterial plaques?