Sometimes It Just Looks Like a Heart Attack

This is scary. New York Times health writer Gina Kolata tells us that a blood test commonly used to identify victims of heart attack based on levels of the heart protein troponin and/or the enzyme creatine kinase often indicate nothing more dangerous than a recent vigorous workout. One health expert tells the Times that, in his opinion, about five percent of people who stress their bodies pump up levels of enzymes to the point that they suggest a heart attack or other serious muscular damage. The same expert points out that enzyme levels often soar in people with larger muscles, men as compared
with women, blacks as compared with whites. What do to? Avoid lab tests, says the doc, within 24 hours of exercise. Or , says Geezer, who has been the anxious victim of such misinterpretations of data, just avoid lab tests.
Read more in the New York Times.