Cheney Gets Good News On Heart

Vice President Dick Cheney's office said he received good news Tuesday during his annual heart checkup, with a pacemaker detecting no irregular heartbeat.

Cheney has had four heart attacks and a pacemaker was placed in his chest in June 2001. The checkup determined that the pacemaker, called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, was working fine and never had to be activated. The device is designed to activate automatically if needed to regulate the patient's heartbeat.

"The vice president was told by his doctors that all the news was very good," said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems. "The doctors informed him that the device neither detected nor treated any arrhythmia."

Cheney underwent the routine exam at George Washington University Medical Center. It included a physical exam, an electrocardiogram, an echocardiogram and a stress test. They are noninvasive procedures and the vice president went back to work.