Echocardiogram image questions - left ventricular hypertrophy

Posted by lpaelevated4 @lpaelevated4, Sep 25 6:26pm

I am a 64 year old woman about 5 feet and 100 lbs, physically active.
I had an echocardiogram in April 2025 and it showed that I have mild LVH with posterior wall of 1.1 cm and septal wall of 1.2 cm. My relative wall thickness was .67 due to my left ventricular internal dimension diastole of 3.3 cm. Cardiologist stated that it may be from high blood pressure, sleep apnea or athletes heart. He ruled out number one and I had sleep lab test. It showed negative for sleep apnea. I had to stop all exercises except for gentle walking up to 3 miles daily with heart rate below 90 for 3 months to be retested.
Yesterday, I was retested by a different sonographer. This was a follow up to see if my posterior and septal walls have decreased based on lessen exercise. She showed me the echocardiogram (from April 2025) image of my left ventricle and said it looked "squished" and said the posterior wall and septal wall may have been read as thicker than it could be based on the image.
She told me my heart looks healthy and my left ventricular posterior wall and septal wall are both 1 cm. She also said she got clear images and that she was able to visualize my aortic valve and right ventricle which the previous sonographer was not able to do.
I am now wondering if I really did have a normal heart without hypertrophy to begin with as the image was squished. Also the technician for the April 2025 echocardiogram did not have me change into a gown. I unbuttoned my shirt part ways for the transducer. I also ended up off the pillow holding my head up for most of the echo whereas the one from yesterday had me in a gown and I didn't end up off the pillow. She would help position me for accurate images.
I guess the question is could the posterior and septal wall decreased based on athletes heart or there was no mild hypertrophy to being with.
Any comment would be appreciated. Actually I thought that 1 cm for 64 year old woman is just off the normal slightly depending on what you read.

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gloaming | @gloaming | Sep 26 2:13am

I would go for a third round, but yet a third technician and expert reader. If you get two that match of the three, chances are there's something to them. Just my opinion...

gerrycf | @gerrycf | Sep 26 10:36am

I had an echo done recently, still at a NYU location but "locally" for convenience as I had been driving nonstop to NYC from suburb. The tech actually sat on the bed with me and performed the test and was pushing, prodding, etc. In addition, results always show in my chart 24-48 hours later and it took almost 2 weeks. I did not feeling confident at all with results. I then went to NYU hospital where my cardiologist is located, to request another echo and retake it there. I did so, and the results were different. I strongly recommend going to the best place and have it done whereby you feel confident in the tech doing the test and radiologist reading it. Good luck.

lpaelevated4 | @lpaelevated4 | 22 hours ago

In reply to @gerrycf "I had an echo done recently, still at a NYU location but "locally" for convenience as..." + (show)

@gerrycf I had 2 echocardiograms and finally had an MRI cardiac using the Siemens 3.0 Tesla MRI at UCLA today. Got the result back the same day and there is no myocardial hypertrophy found at all. In fact, my aorta is fine as well compared to the echo results. I am happy with the result but didn't realize that an echocardiogram is not very accurate compared to the MRI cardiac

gerrycf | @gerrycf | 21 hours ago

In reply to @lpaelevated4 "@gerrycf I had 2 echocardiograms and finally had an MRI cardiac using the Siemens 3.0 Tesla..." + (show)

@lpaelevated4 Happy to hear .... good news for you. I have had so many "echocardiagrams" and they have always been normal. I've also had "normal" ECGs with some borderline. Long story short - 4 stents in LAD and finally upon my insistence for 2+ years I finally had an cardiac MRI (after requesting it to my 5 prior cardiologists who felt it was unnecessary), and finally I demanded it with my new woman cardio who agreed to do it; a diagnosis of microvascular disease (global) which finally explains all my symptoms and we started treatment. So advice is be your own advicoate - and to all doctors please listen to your patients.

lpaelevated4 | @lpaelevated4 | 17 hours ago

In reply to @gerrycf "@lpaelevated4 Happy to hear .... good news for you. I have had so many "echocardiagrams" and..." + (show)

@gerrycf Was on a long walk a month ago and met a retired Health insurance company administrator. She told me it doesn't matter which health plan you have, you need to do your own research, ask questions and advocate for yourself for better care.
Thanks for your reply. Best to your health .

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