Echo readings

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Mister_James

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 23, 2013
Messages
196
Location
NYC
I am on the annual echo cycle since I had my mitral valve replaced. So far the mitral is fine.

However they found a bicuspid aortic valve with fused right and left coronary cusps and fibrocalcific changes with reduced opening (stenosis).

The drama for me has been the changes in the Aortic Valve readings:

Year / AVA (Vmax) cm2 / AVA Index
2013 / 2.5 VTI / 1.1
2019 / 1.3 / 0.7
2020 / 1.3 / 0.8
2021 / 1.7 / 0.8
2022 / 2.0 / 0.9

The only change that has happened in the last 2 years is my being serious about controlling my cholesterol. I was in high averaging 250mg/dL; LDL 180 but last November I was down to 115mg/dL; LDL 41(Lipitor/Niacin and Red Yeast Rice...I added the last 2).

These numbers are going in the opposite direction. Anyone seen a trend like this? I will see my cardio in December for our biannual chat buy questions are:
Is this a real trend? Maybe related to reduced arteriosclerosis?
Errors in measurements. I know for sure doctors review old reports so there may be a bias to be consistent somewhat.

All echos done at the same hospital but different staff.
 
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I’d be interested to hear what your cardio says. My valve area readings on annual echos have fluctuated up and down but not that much. Couple of times they’ve ordered a TEE to get greater accuracy.
 
Heart readings can improve over time, even in cases of calcium build-up, etc. Lifestyle, supplements, qigong, etc. can sometimes reverse downward trends. Rapamycin - a popular anti-aging drug - is known to repair atherosclerosis.

My mother had severe anemia when she had a heart echo done the other year. Although they said she had very mild aortic stenosis (wasn't even going to tell us, but I happened to read the test results). They weren't even sure she had it because severe anemia can easily give false readings. I believe they said they would have to retest and most likely do a TEE to really make sure.

Things appear to be really looking up for you, friend. Congratulations!

Please take care and keep getting better and better and better.
 
I spoke to the cardio and he says there is a correlation between arteriosclerosis and valve calcification and though not perfectly correlated there studies suggest a relation. Controlling cholesterol and CAD has benefits to heart valves but he however cautioned that this will delay the inevitable and that is a good thing but not a cure.
 
Possible reasons for the valve area to inaccurate (it doesn’t make sense that the valve area would increase with time)
1) valve area error due to mitral valve interference before it was fixed
2) valve area involves making a measurement that has error and then squaring it - so any error is squared
3) Is there aortic regurgitation as well? This could also contribute to error.
4) the peak aortic velocity is the probably the most reliable measurement. See what the trend is for that.

None of those measurements seem worrying at this stage. Good luck with your future measurements.
 

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