Symptoms ?

[brussell107]

Hi,
I was diagnosed with aortic insufficency and mild tricuspid regurgitation with a LV of 5.4cm about a year ago. I have been experenceing lightheadedness and sharp left sided chest pain for about two years now. The doctors and two cardiologist say that these leaks would not cause these symptoms at this stage.
I have been having headaches and a flushed weird sensation along with the other symptoms for the last month or so. I have had two echos, a stress test, lung scan, holter monitor, ekgs and chest xray. All negative besides the echo findings above.

My question is what else could be causing these symptoms, this is causing me stress and have noticed my bp go from 120/70 to 130/90, doctors say due to stress. Or is my heart causing this and should I ask for a third opinion?
Can anyone else tell me what kind of symptoms they have had? What type of chest pain comes with these conitions? I do not know what else to do at this point except put uo with these symptoms.

Thanks
B

 

[MikeHeim]

I know this is extremely difficult in Canada, but you need to get a second opinion. I ended up having all kinds of things the eventually turned out to be symptoms that I had no idea were heart related. For instance, I constantly felt warm and basically couldn't wear a long-sleeve shirt without sweating. I never even mentioned that to my Cardiologist, and didn't realize it was a symptom until it went away after my surgery. Another one is that I had an uncomfortable feeling in my neck that made it difficult to wear t-shirts. I also would yawn several times while I was working out (not exactly classic SOB). All of these pretty much went away after surgery, so I've now come to attribute them to my heart. Your's may not be, but it's not impossible that they are...

 

[sue943]

I got part way through reading your post and my immediate thoughts were "Stress", then I read that this has been mentioned as a possibly cause.

Stress certainly causes lightheadedness in me, has for many years since well before any cardiac problems. As for leftsided discomfort, I have had that with stress too.

I am not saying yours is stress-related, only that mine was.

If in doubt get it checked out.

 

[ruth]

Two thoughts -

B, you don't mention if you are male or female, heart symptoms can vary with sex, can you clarify?

Dehydration comes to mind. It can lead to lightheadedness and headaches. The chest pain I simply don't know.

Ruth

 

[brussell107]

Hi,
I am male, I do not think it is dehydration because I drink about a liter or two of water a day when I am not going to the gym, when I go to the gym I drink double that. I have been told too much water can cause problems, but doctors have told me otherwise.

Thanks
B

 

[MrP]

Sharp chest pain may be a symptom of aortic regurgitation (insufficiency). Rugurgitation is ranked subjectively on a scale of 1 to 4 with 4+ severe. What degree of regurgitation was indicated on the echo test? Sharp chest pain may also be skeletal muscular in origin.

 

[brussell107]

Regurgitation rating

Regurgitation rating

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, I get a shapp chest pain every day sometimes followed by a dull ache, sometimes with lightheadedness most times without, sometimes I get lightheadedness without chest pain? On the echo it stated grade 1 regurgitation.

Thanks
B

 

[Arlyss]

Many things in your chest were checked, but there is another major part of you there that they did not look at - your aorta, the largest artery in the body that rises from the heart at the left ventricle. When the aortic valve opens, blood flows out of the heart to begin its journey through your body.

I didn't notice your age mentioned, but generally valves fail in the elderly just due to the wear and tear of a long life. If you are younger, that does not apply to you - something else is the root cause.

So, why does an aortic valve leak in a younger person? If the tissue is weakening and loosing its ability to hold its form properly (the leaflets are not coming together well enough to close the opening completely, thus the leak) the nature of the tissue comes into question. What is wrong with it? The tissue of the aorta should also be suspect.

A CT scan or MRI with contrast will look at the aorta. They should be looking for bulging that is larger than what is normal for your body. It is often the one test not done when looking at the chest!

Bicuspid aortic valves are associated with abnormal aortic tissue. But there are others with normal appearing aortic valves that are also being found with aortic enlargement/aneurysms.

They should also check to see if the aorta has any narrowing, which is called coarctation.

Volatile blood pressure can be a marker that goes along with this kind of aortic condition. You can get a home blood pressure machine and record your BP and pulse and look for any patterns. Headaches may be an important clue that should be looked at also.

The above is just information. To know what is really there regarding the aorta, someone needs to look. So, to answer your question, there is one more test that would rule out or confirm any involvement of your aorta. If this were my own body, I would have a CT or MRI with contrast done.


Best wishes,
Arlyss