Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Ed Yeates ReportingAfter 18 years of debilitating chest pain, a Utah woman now, for the first time, has proof of her hidden heart condition. For years doctors said it was all in her head, but not anymore.
Toni Smith first experienced chest pains when she was only 10 years old. They would come and go, but never stay. By the time she moved to Utah nine years later, the pain was permanent.
Toni Smith: "She prescribed anti-depressants. She prescribed ant-anxiety medications. Nothing worked. The chest pain was waking me up at night."
From that girl of 10 to a young woman trying to work and go to school, doctor after doctor said it was psychosomatic.
Toni Smith: "You're working full time. You're going to school full time. You know you're a young woman in stress."
One doctor believed her, simply by eliminating other possibilities. But still, tests showed nothing. When that cardiologist retired, it was back to the same old song.
Toni Smith: "There was not a doctor in Utah willing to see me. They didn't believe the condition existed. They weren't able to see it. They weren't able to prove it."
That is, until Dr. Gerald Pohost at USC's University Hospital in California used a new 3-Tesla MRI, as it's called.
Toni Smith: "They stuck my hand in a bucket of ice water, which seemed silly at the time. But it was to bring on the chest pains, caused the spasms, and we got pictures. 18 years I've waited for those pictures."
Cardio Microvascular Syndrome, that's what it's called. The tiniest arteries in the heart muscle constrict, reducing blood flow. Conventional tests never picked this up.
Gerald Pohost, M.D., Cardiovascular Medicine, USC University Hospital: "Women have different symptoms and signs than men for coronary disease."
Toni now is going back to the University of Utah, hoping to major in fine arts. Her project is documenting symbols of her eighteen years of life lost, in photographs. But her most valuable picture is that MRI.
Toni Smith: "To be able to say to any doctor, 'Here's a picture of it, you can't tell me that I'm a crazy young woman."
A new study is currently tracking one thousand women with symptoms like Toni's, but who seem okay in standard tests. With her diagnosis, Toni now will begin treatment next month.
