Question

I have had occasional abnormal ECG's that show "a previous infarct". I've not had any heart problems, but I've a family history coronary artery disease, and high blood pressure and high cholesterol, both under control with medication and diet. I am participating in a clinical study for a new arthritis drug, and so I had 12 ECG's in the period of 3 days; 3 of them came back abnormal, similar to the previous ones, but ECG's taken minutes after the abnormal ECG came back normal in all cases. What could be the cause of this? Do I need further testing?

Answer

Actually, many times the ECG computer is "dumb" and misinterprets the ECG tracing - that's why cardiologists read them themselves. What I suspect may be happening with you is that the ECG leads are slightly misaligned at times and the computer thinks this means that there was an old heart attack. We call such tracings "poor R wave progression" which can result from a number of things - an old heart attack being one of them. It doesn't sound like you have any risk factors other than your family history, and you have no symptoms. So it doesn't sound like I would worry too much about the varying readings.