Why does my husband have spells, and what's causing his enzymes to go up?
Dear DrRich:
My husband has been having problems for about a year now, he has what we call spells. He gets lightheaded and can't focus, his stomach gets upset, he has pressure in his chest, sometimes he has pain and numbness that goes to his left jaw and shoulder and down his arm to his hand. He has shortness of breath and gets really weak, this usually comes on after physical or emotional stress, but sometimes it happens when he is just sitting. He has had a treadmill test, and an EKG, but both have turned up nothing, he has also had an upper GI done, with nothing showing up there either. He has not had an arteriogram, but he had one done about 10 years ago and it showed normal. When he had a really bad spell several months ago, we went to the emergency room and they did a blood enzyme test, his muscle enzymes were normal and his heart enzymes were slightly elevated,after 4 hours they did it again, and both muscle and heart had gone up, after 4 more hours, they did it again, and both had increased again. The doctor said that since both were high, that he wasn't concerned, because my husband lays brick and block and is very physically active. We can't find anyone who will diagnose him and treat him, can you please give us some advice?
Sincerely,
Ms. Q
DrRich replies:
Dear Ms. Q,
I
cannot give specific medical advice over the Internet, especially for a case as
complex as the one you present.
I
have two suggestions. First, I
would recommend that your husband see another doctor as soon as possible,
preferably an internist or a cardiologist, who could look at the whole picture -
including test results, etc. - from scratch, without preconceived notions.
Second,
I have no idea what to make of the enzyme elevations you mention, but if there's
ANY question about his heart being the cause of his spells (and it seems to me
that there is) this is something that needs to be ABSOLUTELY ruled out, and not
guessed about. My concern is that
cardiac enzymes almost always mean something when they're elevated, and need to
be tracked down. When you go to the new doctor, make sure he/she focuses on the
possibility of cardiac problems - despite the negative noninvasive tests.
Best of luck,
DrRich
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