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WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, went to a hospital Saturday after experiencing shortness of breath. Tests found no abnormalities, an aide said, and Cheney left after three hours.
"I feel fine," the 63-year-old vice president said as he walked out with his wife, Lynne.
Cheney smiled and waved to people gathered outside the hospital entrance.
"Sorry we ruined your Saturday," Mrs. Cheney told reporters. "We're great, thank you."
A pacemaker implanted in Cheney's chest three years ago indicated no irregularities during the past 90 days, said Mary Matalin, a spokeswoman for the vice president. The device gives doctors a three-month readout. She said an electrocardiogram, which measures the heart's electrical activity, showed no change.
His cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, said he suspects the vice president has a respiratory infection.
"The vice president, complaining of a productive cough and shortness of breath, was evaluated at George Washington Medical Center today," Reiner said in a statement issued by the White House. "Tests ruled out any cardiac cause of the vice president's symptoms. Tests also ruled out pneumonia and other pulmonary causes. The vice president likely has a viral, upper respiratory infection."
Cheney, who has had four heart attacks, although none as vice president, returned Thursday night from a pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota with a cold that left him short of breath, Matalin said.
The vice president, who joined President Bush on Friday for meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, felt fine otherwise, but his cardiologist recommended as a precaution that he go to the hospital for tests.
"Everything looks great," Matalin said before Cheney was released. "He's walking around from room to room in his street clothes just waiting for the blood work."
She said Cheney was driven in a motorcade from his residence a few miles from the hospital and walked in under his own power.
The president was notified by his chief of staff, Andy Card, shortly after Bush returned from a bike ride Saturday at a Secret Service training facility outside Washington.
In June 2001, Cheney had a pacemaker implanted in his chest. At his annual heart checkup on May 11, doctors determined the pacemaker was working fine and had never needed to assist his heart.
Ahead of the fall presidential campaign, Cheney dismissed speculation that his health might keep him from running again.
After his fourth heart attack, Cheney quit smoking, began regular daily exercises and said he began watching his diet.