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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Results Of My Echocardiogram ? Please Tell Me What Does This Means ?

Results of my Echocardiogram? Can someone tell me what this means? Let me clarify....I am awaiting an appointment with a Cardiologist aslo. The Echo was done by my PCP and they called and said it looked good but I should still see a cardiologist, so I am still waiting for that appointment. I just got the results faxed to me and because Im impatient I just wanted to see if anybody out there could read them and tell me if the results mean more than it looked good . Here is the brief summary of the results on the report: Impression: 1. Normal left and right ventricular systolic function ejection fraction 62% 2. Mild mitral and mild tricuspid regurgitation noted 3. All valves physiologically noted 4. Normal distolic function of left ventrical noted 5. No mass effusion or thrombosis noted It actually all sounds good to me except number 2, but even that may be ok??? I guess I will be on to my next test to try and figure out my issue In response to Doodlebug s comments.....The PCP is sending me because when I am doing something active, all of the sudden I will experience rapid heart beat, chest pain, and my eyes start to go black like everything is closing in on me....after a few deep breaths and about 2 minutes of time, it goes away. This has been going on for quite some time and I just told the PCP about it. I also have family history of Heart issues. So she wanted to do a ECHO to see if they can find anything, and she was planning on sending me to a cardiologist regardless of the results.
Fri, 18 Dec 2009
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Your echo looks normal in every respect. You are being referred due to your symptoms. Your symptoms imply that you are getting inadequate oxygen and/or blood supply to possibly your heart muscle (suddenly rapid heart rate) and more certainly your brain (having visual changes) with activity. What would do that? A couple things come mind: 1. You may have a left-to-right shunt (opening between the septum of the left side of your heart and the right side of your heart) that allows de-oxygenated blood to mix with your oxygenated blood. This would be happening all of the time but only becomes an issue for you during times of exertion. It is a congenital condition. If found then it would be evaluated for how serious the problem is - usually by a bubble study or a trans-esophogeal echocardiogram (aka TEE) or both. Large defects, if present, can be corrected surgically. 2. Abnormal rhythm. The top or bottom of your heart may sudden go into a very fast rhythm that is not efficient at pumping blood (too fast to even fill with blood to pump it), therefore causing the brain to feel like it is being starved for oxygen. Your PCP was looking for a valvular dysfunction which could cause the same problem - but it is not there. A cardiologist may run a variety of tests first to establish the cause and then to consider the best approach to fix it. Having said all of that it is entirely possible nothing is wrong with your heart and there is another issue at play. Good luck.

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Results Of My Echocardiogram ? Please Tell Me What Does This Means ?

Your echo looks normal in every respect. You are being referred due to your symptoms. Your symptoms imply that you are getting inadequate oxygen and/or blood supply to possibly your heart muscle (suddenly rapid heart rate) and more certainly your brain (having visual changes) with activity. What would do that? A couple things come mind: 1. You may have a left-to-right shunt (opening between the septum of the left side of your heart and the right side of your heart) that allows de-oxygenated blood to mix with your oxygenated blood. This would be happening all of the time but only becomes an issue for you during times of exertion. It is a congenital condition. If found then it would be evaluated for how serious the problem is - usually by a bubble study or a trans-esophogeal echocardiogram (aka TEE) or both. Large defects, if present, can be corrected surgically. 2. Abnormal rhythm. The top or bottom of your heart may sudden go into a very fast rhythm that is not efficient at pumping blood (too fast to even fill with blood to pump it), therefore causing the brain to feel like it is being starved for oxygen. Your PCP was looking for a valvular dysfunction which could cause the same problem - but it is not there. A cardiologist may run a variety of tests first to establish the cause and then to consider the best approach to fix it. Having said all of that it is entirely possible nothing is wrong with your heart and there is another issue at play. Good luck.