Cheney routine medical check normal - Whouse

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who has a history of heart problems, got an all clear from his doctors after his yearly routine physical examination on Saturday, his office said.

"The vice president has ... resumed his normal schedule," the office said in a statement.

Cheney, 67, has had four heart attacks, quadruple bypass surgery, two artery-clearing angioplasties and a procedure to implant a defibrillator.

Doctors at George Washington University Hospital conducted his annual physical examination on Saturday morning.

"The tests included a physical exam, an electrocardiogram, and imaging of the stents placed in the arteries behind his knees in 2005," the statement said.

"The vice president's cardiac status remains stable; he has not experienced any recurrence of atrial fibrillation and his ICD (implanted cardioverter defibrillator) neither detected nor treated any arrhythmia. The popliteal artery stents are widely patent and functioning normally."

Cheney had his most recent heart attack shortly after the November 2000 election, although it was considered mild. He had the defibrillator implanted in his chest in 2001 to help regulate his heartbeat.

The vice president, one of President George W. Bush's closest advisers, has had a series of health scares in recent years, including the discovery of a blood clot in his leg after a nine-day trip through Asia and the Middle East last year.

In January 2006, he was treated for shortness of breath believed to have been triggered by a reaction to medication for a foot ailment. He had surgery to treat abnormal blood vessels, or aneurysms, behind both knees in September 2005.