ASHINGTON - Republican vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney had a checkup yesterday and he reported that doctors found him recovering well one week after his fourth heart attack.
Cheney underwent blood tests and an electrocardiogram that doctors at George Washington University Hospital described as routine.
But the hospital refused to reveal the actual test results or say when Cheney will have additional exams important in measuring how well his damaged heart is functioning.
Cheney, 59, had a mild heart attack on Nov. 22. One of his heart arteries was 90 percent blocked, so doctors implanted a wire scaffolding-like device called a stent to push away the blockage and prop open the artery walls.
He had his first heart attack at age 37, and in 1988 had surgery to clear clogged arteries.
While Cheney's latest attack was mild, the accumulation of disease has left his heart moderately damaged, his doctors acknowledged last week. Other heart experts note Cheney is at higher risk for further attacks than the average 59 year old, and needs to take protective steps.
Like many stent recipients, Cheney last week was started on a month-long course of a potent medicine called Plavix to keep blood from clotting around the device. But Plavix can cause bleeding, and in very rare cases, a potentially fatal anemia.
Patients must be closely watched for such side effects, something doctors presumably looked for during the checkup, although they would not say.
''We told Mr. Cheney he can resume his usual schedule and stressed the importance of good exercise and nutrition,'' one of his physicians, Dr. Gary Malakoff, said in a statement.
