The current medical checkup to renew taxi license is useless as
far as checking for heart condition is concerned. You can pass the
medical today, tomorrow, you can suffer a heart attack.
Currently, medical science is not advanced enough to predict
accurately exactly when you will have a heart attack. There
are a few types of tests:
1. Resting ECG. This is where you lie down and they put
electrodes on your body to check your heart rhythm. It is
only as good as at that point in time the electrodes are on your
body. Nothing more.
2. Stress ECG. Same as resting ECG except that you need to
run on a threadmill and they take the readings. The running
gets more and more strenuous. Also only good at the time of test or
maybe for one or two more days.
3. Angiograms. There are 3 types. CT Angiogram, MR
Angiogram and Coronary Angiogram. Of the 3, Coronary
Angiogram is the current Gold Standard. These tests check for
heart blockages and calcium deposits. They can tell you which
artery is blocked and how much of it is blocked so that you can
take medication to control or go for regular physical exercises so
that the blockages do not become worse.
Why do seemingly healthy, fit and young people suddenly die of
heart attack during a run? One reason is that their arteries may
already be partially blocked say 30%. During exercise, their
artieries may tear due to calcium deposits dislodging along the
artery wall. Bleeding will occur. As a natural body defense,
blood clot will occur immediately. The blood clot together
with the partially blocked arteries may choke off your heart
totally and cause an infarction.
Suggest that if you are above 40 years old and do not exercise
regularly, smoke and have a poor diet to go for an angiogram test.
No guarantee, but no harm too. Some people go for the
angiogram and immediately the next day, they need to do an
angioplasty or a bypass as their arteries are found to be
completely blocked. A CT Angiogram currently cost about $1,300 to
$1,500 and done by a heart specialist.
Smlj ECG../ angmogram....also no use one lah, buay accurate one.
The best person to know his illness is he himself, but most of
these farkers just dun bother to see the sign and think everything
is ok after few days, LJ lah, old liao, just becareful, the best is
stop driving or be security guards (nicer name is security
officer), then no need to worry abt smlj 7 airbags or death body
bags
