Question: I have a few questions for a cardiologist. My husband had pre op examination before his surgery on Nov. 26, 2012 My husband had back surgery, he needed clearance before the surgery. Everything was fine. In his results from his echocardiogram there were a few things I didn't understand. First the cardiologist said he has an extra heartbeat. His echo showed: 1) a mild pulmonic regurgitation 2) a 1+ mild aortic regurgitation 3) abnormal tissue doppler of the mitral annulus is consistent with abnormal left ventricular relation 4) an atrial septal aneurysm 5) a trace of tricuspid regurgation. His cardiologist said he was clear for the surgery. All this sounds serious to me. Can you explain this to me.

I have another question. Thankyou for answering my question. I have an identical twin sister, age 72 who went to a new internist for her yearly examination. Because her doctor retired. She is very healthy, eats a healful diet, consists of fish, skinless chicken, lots of veggies, fruit. meat once a month. no white flour, pasta, or breads, only whole grain, no sugar or sweets. her HDL is 82, LDL 99, triglyserides 45
exercises 30 per day, and walks. She goes to the doctor & of course she get the white coat syndrome. He checked her and he told her she has a slight murmur, that blew her mind and mind. She had a ekg & he said its good, now he is sending her for an echocardiagram & doppler. She is in a state of panic & so am I, because she is my identical twin sister. I need something posit, before we give our selves heart attacks. I forgot to mention she was uder stress for 6 months. The findings was a mild mitral valve leak, which er doctor told her not to worry. But of course she is worried and so am I, because we are close and identical twins. Please tell me we shouldn't worry. She said she will be going for an echo every year. By the way her doppler was very good.

Now I'm even more nervious when I read heart disease. For all these years her and I went to an interenist and he never told us that either one of us had a murmur. This is a new doctor who my sister went to, because our doctor retired. I am going in another 2 weeks to see if I have the same. We are both becoming basket cases over this. We feel so good, that people always say that we are so active and healthy and lucky to look and be the way we are. Sometimes we think people envied us, because we never complained. Although we are 72 years old, we were taken for 50 years old, thats how good we keep ourselves. Thats why this murmur and a mild mitral valve leak is upsetting us and now its controlling our lives. Our mom passed away 3 years ago at the age of 95, with no health problems, just natural causes. Our dad, passed away at the age of 55 from a heart attack. He never watched his diet, he smoked, drank and was a bit overweight. That is why we are so concerned.