Re: PFO, etc.

[Guest guest]

candtcampbell@... wrote: a posted Carol's very detailed description of a PFO. Thanks, yes I saw that. Thanks, a. And at least Cheney keeps people informed as he changes his mind, as he often seems to do, but at least he's very transparent with everything he does, so I give him credit for that as well as for trying. For my appointment with the "great" cardiologist, I printed stuff out from Cheney and several studies. Of course, I didn't know about the bubble test at that time, but he seriously laughed at the impedance cardiograph and called it "old and outdated" and said no one would do this heart repair based on so little information. I guess I can see his point if even Cheney is now advising against it. I've known a lot of people to rush into new treatments, like IVIG and pandindromate, just to seriously regret it later. So I suppose

maybe I'm becoming conservative like all these doctors. It would just be nice if they'd at least work with you, give you the benefit of the doubt. Fortunately, my GP does, but it's the specialists that tend to be so arrogant and exhausting to deal with. penny Penny, As I said before, the impedance cardiograph measures blood flow in the chest that is pumped either by the heart or by the

metacapillary pump. Cheney became interested in the impedance cardiograph because Peckerman published a research paper about its use on CFS patients, but at this point I think Cheney is relying much more heavily on GE Vivid 7 echocardiograms than on impedance cardiographs. The echo focuses strictly on heart function, whereas the impedance machine confounds heart function with capillary pumping. I found it rather easy to get my local cardiologist to order a bubble test after showing her Carol's writing. Interestingly, although my cardiac output is lower than anyone in Peckerman's study, I have no PFO. But then I don't have "real" CFS either. Tim Would you be good enough to tell us in a nutshell what PFO is and the difference between the two procedures/conditions and why that difference is significant? And how easy is it to get a doc to perform this bubble injection

test?thanks again,penny