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What Do My Lab Test Reports Indicate?
Question: Dear Doctor,
I am uploading reports of Echocardiography and ECG of my father aged 75 years. He has never had any complaints regarding his heart but was forced to take these tests as a routine before a Prostate Arterial embolization at Fortis XXXXXXX . We are all surprised of course when the results indicate abnormalities .
My father has always been an active man who lives most of the time in the mountainous region of Himalayas and has no problem climbing up steep slopes or stairs nor gets he tired even after long hours of walking or swimming. He has had no feeling of any pain in the chest as believed by the doctors conducting the above tests. He does not smoke nor drink and generally follows a low carbohydrate diet with nuts and fruits for breakfast and mostly boiled or stir fried vegetables or meat or fish with no spices. He avoids sugar and sugary drinks and all kinds of sweets cakes etc.He is not a diabetic. He weighs about 90Kg. and although overweight is described by most doctors as fit and fat.
He is averse to all kind of drugs and the few times he had to take drugs for UTI and the like during his life had always suffered severe adverse rections. As a result he is reluctant to take any drug as a medicine.
Following the concept of living with the ailment and or living with the adverse effects of medication he prefers to live with the ailment. However the concept could be a problem if the results are indicative of a trend towards a fast life threatening state.
My first question
Are the results indicative of such a trend or is it age related deterioration.
My second question
Can he continue to live the way he wants to live without going for extensive medication or tests etc. etc. and trying to correct a condition that may not be worth the cost or discomfort. He is mentally very active with little or no stress of any kind.
He however does get marginally high blood pressure at times either when he has some kind of medication or when he is sick with some minor ailment like cough or cold etc. He says he has had these right from the age of of 18 and has never taken any medicine to correct it.
My third question
Whether minor changes in his life style can retard any defects or deterioration in the conditions indicated in the results. He is already active and keeps himself busy almost all the daylight hours and has good and extremely good sleep in then night. He could of course increase his activity like walk an extra mile etc.
I am uploading reports of Echocardiography and ECG of my father aged 75 years. He has never had any complaints regarding his heart but was forced to take these tests as a routine before a Prostate Arterial embolization at Fortis XXXXXXX . We are all surprised of course when the results indicate abnormalities .
My father has always been an active man who lives most of the time in the mountainous region of Himalayas and has no problem climbing up steep slopes or stairs nor gets he tired even after long hours of walking or swimming. He has had no feeling of any pain in the chest as believed by the doctors conducting the above tests. He does not smoke nor drink and generally follows a low carbohydrate diet with nuts and fruits for breakfast and mostly boiled or stir fried vegetables or meat or fish with no spices. He avoids sugar and sugary drinks and all kinds of sweets cakes etc.He is not a diabetic. He weighs about 90Kg. and although overweight is described by most doctors as fit and fat.
He is averse to all kind of drugs and the few times he had to take drugs for UTI and the like during his life had always suffered severe adverse rections. As a result he is reluctant to take any drug as a medicine.
Following the concept of living with the ailment and or living with the adverse effects of medication he prefers to live with the ailment. However the concept could be a problem if the results are indicative of a trend towards a fast life threatening state.
My first question
Are the results indicative of such a trend or is it age related deterioration.
My second question
Can he continue to live the way he wants to live without going for extensive medication or tests etc. etc. and trying to correct a condition that may not be worth the cost or discomfort. He is mentally very active with little or no stress of any kind.
He however does get marginally high blood pressure at times either when he has some kind of medication or when he is sick with some minor ailment like cough or cold etc. He says he has had these right from the age of of 18 and has never taken any medicine to correct it.
My third question
Whether minor changes in his life style can retard any defects or deterioration in the conditions indicated in the results. He is already active and keeps himself busy almost all the daylight hours and has good and extremely good sleep in then night. He could of course increase his activity like walk an extra mile etc.
Brief Answer:
Tests were done considering your father's age
Detailed Answer:
Hello
After going through all the detailed information provided by you of your father, no doubt it's surprising to see a low cardiac function in such a healthy and active person but it's still not impossible to have this issue.
His fitness and healthy lifestyle habits probably have kept him symptoms free. After 60 yrs of age cardiac clearance is required for any medical procedure to be conducted (prostate artery embolisation in your father's case). Now answering your questions
1. Age related Changes which are there are not a concern and won't cause any significant harm but the problem is the low EF. It's will be a bit early to say what path the trend follows in his case as we don't know for how long he is having this issue. So its advisable to repeat an echo after 6 months to see hows the trend going.
2. As he was asymptomatic before so yes he can live the way he want but there will be no surety when he will deteriorate. It will be a kind of 50 50 situation without the support of medicines.
3. He is already having a very good lifestyl. Nothing more to be done in that section. In fact he should limit his activities a bit to avoid unnecessary work stress on his heart.
In my opinion it should not be left on time to decide. Medications should be started.
Hope to have been helpful. Feel free to ask if you have any more doubts.
If you want my opinions in future you can directly leave your health question on my profile and I will answer it to the best of my knowledge.
May God bless
Kind regards
Dr Bhanu partap
Tests were done considering your father's age
Detailed Answer:
Hello
After going through all the detailed information provided by you of your father, no doubt it's surprising to see a low cardiac function in such a healthy and active person but it's still not impossible to have this issue.
His fitness and healthy lifestyle habits probably have kept him symptoms free. After 60 yrs of age cardiac clearance is required for any medical procedure to be conducted (prostate artery embolisation in your father's case). Now answering your questions
1. Age related Changes which are there are not a concern and won't cause any significant harm but the problem is the low EF. It's will be a bit early to say what path the trend follows in his case as we don't know for how long he is having this issue. So its advisable to repeat an echo after 6 months to see hows the trend going.
2. As he was asymptomatic before so yes he can live the way he want but there will be no surety when he will deteriorate. It will be a kind of 50 50 situation without the support of medicines.
3. He is already having a very good lifestyl. Nothing more to be done in that section. In fact he should limit his activities a bit to avoid unnecessary work stress on his heart.
In my opinion it should not be left on time to decide. Medications should be started.
Hope to have been helpful. Feel free to ask if you have any more doubts.
If you want my opinions in future you can directly leave your health question on my profile and I will answer it to the best of my knowledge.
May God bless
Kind regards
Dr Bhanu partap
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vaishalee Punj
Dear Doctor,
Thank you for your opinion on my father's condition. You recommend starting medication. Can you please give us an idea of the common medicines you have in mind or wish to suggest.
1. Do they have sever adverse effects?
2. Will these medications halt the progress of the disorder or do they cure the disease completely over a period of time ?
3. How long must these medicines be taken , throughout life or can they be discontinued at some stage?
4.Is it necessary to carry out angiogram or CT angiogram for deciding on a course of treatment?. Can these medicines be taken without these tests?
Do you think it may be good idea to repeat an echo right now to confirm the original findings at Fortis
thanks
Thank you for your opinion on my father's condition. You recommend starting medication. Can you please give us an idea of the common medicines you have in mind or wish to suggest.
1. Do they have sever adverse effects?
2. Will these medications halt the progress of the disorder or do they cure the disease completely over a period of time ?
3. How long must these medicines be taken , throughout life or can they be discontinued at some stage?
4.Is it necessary to carry out angiogram or CT angiogram for deciding on a course of treatment?. Can these medicines be taken without these tests?
Do you think it may be good idea to repeat an echo right now to confirm the original findings at Fortis
thanks
Brief Answer:
Yes its a good idea to repeat echo at some other good center
Detailed Answer:
Hello again
If the repeat echo shows similar results which is highly likely to be the scenario, then he will be requiring standard set of cardiac meds like Aspirin, ACE inhibitors or ARB's, Nitrates (SOS) etc.
1. All medicines do have some side effects and usually they are not severe and doesn't affect the patient much.
2. Theses will halt the progress or slow down the progress of the disease. It can't be reverted.
3. Usually have to be taken the whole life
4. Yes meds can be taken without the tests; but it's always good to know the severity of the disease to guide the treatment properly.
I hope this information will answer all your questions.
In future if you want my opinions for your health queries then you can directly post your question by visiting or clicking on my profile.
May God bless us all.
Kind Regards
Dr Bhanu partap
Yes its a good idea to repeat echo at some other good center
Detailed Answer:
Hello again
If the repeat echo shows similar results which is highly likely to be the scenario, then he will be requiring standard set of cardiac meds like Aspirin, ACE inhibitors or ARB's, Nitrates (SOS) etc.
1. All medicines do have some side effects and usually they are not severe and doesn't affect the patient much.
2. Theses will halt the progress or slow down the progress of the disease. It can't be reverted.
3. Usually have to be taken the whole life
4. Yes meds can be taken without the tests; but it's always good to know the severity of the disease to guide the treatment properly.
I hope this information will answer all your questions.
In future if you want my opinions for your health queries then you can directly post your question by visiting or clicking on my profile.
May God bless us all.
Kind Regards
Dr Bhanu partap
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
Answered by
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