Prednisone related Heart Conditions

August 6, 2010

The discussions of prednisone has been very timely for me. It seems some of the

problems I have been having that I have attributed to RA, and bronchitis is

actually Heart damage caused by taking prednisone for so long. Now, I am not

saying that this will happen to everyone. I do not like to scare folks. We

already have enough to deal with, with just plain o' RA. I am interested in if

anyone else has had heart problems that a Cardiologist said were caused by

Prednisone. My Cardio said The One big cause of my heart problems is most

likely the prednisone I have taken over the years for RA. This has been in the

last week, and my last appointment with my Cardio doc was last Wednesday were

she said she was looking into prednisone being the cause. I am still into the

diagnositic portion of the game, I've had EKGs, ECGs, a SPECT scan (stress

test), and next up is a CT Angiogram or plain angiogram with the possibility of

having stents put in. No one has mentioned having Heart Failure yet, hopefully

I have dodged the bullet on that. The reason I ended up at the Cardiologist's

offices is I had problems with my heart during my last lumbar spine surgery, and

my spine surgeon wanted me to be cleared for my next set of surgeries to work on

my spine, this having been caused by RA and side effects of prednisone use.

Gawd, if it isn't one thing it's another. I will keep the list updated on what

is happening, but in the meantime here are some of the symptoms to be on the

lookout for just in case it's your heart and not your RA. Swollen feet/legs,

Shortness of breath, major fatigue, pain in the chest, a dry or wet cough. Any

one of these thing and combinations are things I deal with as a RA patient. So,

if you have any of these symptoms, ask to be seened and checked out by a

cardiologist. Another year, and my outlook would not be good, and I am only 50.

These symptoms started years ago, and were put off as being part of RA, my being

too young for heart disease(have we heard that one before?), and the famous,

" Oh, you just over did it. "

Be aware

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