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Living with left ventricular hypertrophy: What cautions do you take?
I am a relatively active 72 year old (swimming, gym and lots of walking). I had a fainting incident recently, ultimately diagnosed as Vasovagal syncope. During the workup I had several tests done on my heart. Echo Cardiogram, MRI and stress test. It was determined that I had “mild Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH)”. Ejection fraction was 54%. MRI indicates heart in “normal range.
After wearing a bp monitor for a day hypertension seems to be the cause. I am now taking perindopril erbumine 8 mg daily.
When I look for ejection fraction readings it is not clear whether 54 is in the normal range or just below.
Also I was wondering if my hypertension comes under control will my LVH and ejection fraction improve?
Many thanks,
Charlie
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Hello Everyone,
I just got my ECG test which reads: "Left ventricular hypertophy" got to find out that it means the left ventricle wall is enlarged. I do no have high blood pressure and I am confused because i'm 39years, though i experience chest pain often but don't really know what to do.. can this be cured adn what are the risk ?
thank you
You can have Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy at any age. Eventually you will need an alcohol septal ablation.
This can be due simply to aging, but also genetics, maybe a previously undetected cardiomyopathy or a viral infection.
As we age, our hearts become more disordered. It's natural. Some of us develop arrhythmias of a kind, or we react poorly to a vaccine, or a virus infects the myocardium and the heart begins to deteriorate. Some of us begin to deposit collagen in quantities in the interstitial tissue, and we get what is called fibrosis. These developments can make the heart less efficient, so it begins to grow more muscle in an attempt to make itself more responsive to the demands your body and your habits place upon it. This combination of thickening does the opposite, and your ejection fraction will begin to suffer, meaning your large ventricles will not fill with as much blood upon relaxing in each stroke as they did 20 years ago. Less blood in each ejection means less capacity to run the body.
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1 ReactionI noted your statement of "we react poorly to a vaccine". Can you expand on that?
When we are vaccinated, say with the annual flu or with a pneumonia vaccine, or a shingles vaccine, or with the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) the administering tech/nurse/pharmacist will ask you to stick around the facility for about 15 minutes to ensure you don't experience anaphylaxis. You may successfully end that cautionary time period and go home, only to have a reaction with your heart, perhaps due to pericarditis or something else, maybe loss of Vagal nerve tone.
Thanks. I have an irrational fear of vaccines since I started getting the Covid vaccine. I have a reaction every time, when I've never had a reaction to any other vaccine. On top of that, I got PMR during Covid, but it came on slowly and took forever to get diagnosed, so I can't really say it was from the vaccine.
So is your understanding that it can happen and you're unaware? I guess that must be true, given that people get heart failure and never see it coming. My last echo appeared to show some diastolic dysfunction. Now I'm terrified of heart failure, partly because I just don't understand how it comes on or the timing of medical interventions. It seems like they wait until there is irreversible remodeling to actually start treating any potential causes. That seems odd to me.
I have no personal experience. I have had every MRNA vaccine offered through the Province's health care system here in British Columbia. I'm due for #9 in a couple of months. No reactions, just a bit of soreness at the injection point. But when I say 'react poorly', I mean symptomatically, and enough so that the person seeks help, even if just out of curiosity or of caution.
OK. Thanks. I continue to get them too.