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EmpowHer Asks:
What are some of your main tools or tests that you use to determine if someone has a weak heart or a diseased heart?
Dr. Paul Underwood:
Well, I think the first test that we use is to talk to the person to find out what their symptoms are. And so in talking to them we find out if they had have any limitations of their activities particularly as it relates to the chest. And so that could be fluttering in the chest, a sensation of a rapid heartbeat or the heart beating too slow, a sensation of shortness of breath, a sensation of chest discomfort or chest pressure that makes one want to rest or sometime people will feel dizzy and faint as if they want to pass out. And so those are the symptoms that we try to obtain from people to see if they may have significant heart disease.
Well, I think the first test that we use is to talk to the person to find out what their symptoms are. And so in talking to them we find out if they had have any limitations of their activities particularly as it relates to the chest. And so that could be fluttering in the chest, a sensation of a rapid heartbeat or the heart beating too slow, a sensation of shortness of breath, a sensation of chest discomfort or chest pressure that makes one want to rest or sometime people will feel dizzy and faint as if they want to pass out. And so those are the symptoms that we try to obtain from people to see if they may have significant heart disease.
Paul L. Underwood Jr., M.D., is an interventional cardiologist in Phoenix, was the 10th president of the Atlanta-based Association of Black Cardiologists 2004-2006 (ABC), Inc.