Had Echo done on Wednesday!

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Taysgrama

Taysgrama

Well-known member
Joined
May 2, 2008
Messages
271
Location
Franklin, Ohio
I had my new echo done on Wednesday and I see the NA at my cardio's office this coming Wednesday. Question though: She made a comment that has me a little concerned. She was looking at my tricuspid and said: I thought you said they repaired this? I said they put a ring around it. She then said that it does not appear that it worked at stopping the leak. Then she shut up! Of course......anyone ever hear of a ring not working after only 2 years? She never said anything about my mitral, which is what I was actually concerned about. She did say that my St Jude Aortic was working great!!!
 
I think there is probably a reason that most echo techs are supposed to keep their mouths shut about the results Don't know enough to comment any more than that, but i wouldn't get too freaked out until you hear what the doctor says.
 
Techs really should learn to shut their yaps.....A tech is not a cardiologist and not a surgeon.
They have no business making any assumptions.
Best wishes with this, and make sure to get copies of your reports for your own record keeping.
 
Taysgrama said:
I had my new echo done on Wednesday and I see the NA at my cardio's office this coming Wednesday. Question though: She made a comment that has me a little concerned. She was looking at my tricuspid and said: I thought you said they repaired this? I said they put a ring around it. She then said that it does not appear that it worked at stopping the leak. Then she shut up! Of course......anyone ever hear of a ring not working after only 2 years? She never said anything about my mitral, which is what I was actually concerned about. She did say that my St Jude Aortic was working great!!!
Click to expand...

I'm going through this myself right now. I just had a stress/echo last Friday with my cardiologist which is at a different hospital than my surgery. He didn't seem concerned but wanted me to take a TEE. When I called Monday morning for more information, a high level staff member repeated that my regurg was moderate. It was severe pre-surgery. I agree that techs and anyone that is not a doctor should not speak.
 
I asked specifically about the different readings in my regurg and EF when I met with my surgeon recently. He said it's pretty much interpretation, and not necessarily an absolute.
And regular echos are not as accurage as TEES, so if your doctor wants a TEE before he speaks that's a good thing. He's double checking. Maybe there's a problem, but maybe there's just a fuzzy echo.
 
I'm going for a consultation with the cardiologist that took the TEE right after surgery at the request of the surgeon. My current cardiologist works at a rival hospital and threw out the concept of an Everest Clip to clip the valve. I hate to say it, but it seems money motivated.
 
Echos are very subjective, having a lot to do with the techniques of the tech. I would wait for the doctor's interpretation. They really aren't all that accurate as others have mentioned. They can be off by quite a bit.
 
Don't sweat anything from an echo. If a TEE or Catscan says different, then maybe it's something to think about. Echoes are not the best diagnostic tool.
 
I had my second echo from a different cardiologist at the same hospital as the surgeon. Looks like regurg is moderate again. The atrium went down from about 6.2 from presurgery to 4.8 today. That's good. The left ventricle increased from 59 in September post op to 60 today. He believes the valves look good but the ring while in place may be needed to be checked. I'm getting the TEE in a few weeks. He isn't expecting the TEE to show anything different. I feel depressed but no one if freaking out but me.
 
Echo Results today

Echo Results today

Saw the NP today and she really had nothing to say. Evidently my cardio is out of the office this week so she was going to check with the cardio on call for him and call me back later today. She said that the only other option was to do a heart cath to see if they could find the issue, but she wanted to talk to the other cardio first. I am not even sure why they had me go in the office if they had nothing to tell me. I did get a copy of my echo and this is what it says:

Right Ventricular Dimensions (RVDd) 3.2 CMS
Interventricular Septum (thickness) 0.9 CMS
Left Ventricular Internal Dimensions 4.3/3.0 CMS
Left Ventricular Posterior Wall 1.0 CMS
Aortic Root 3.3 CMS
Aortic Cusp Separation AVR
Left Atrial Dimensions (LAD) 4.0 CMS

1. Left ventricular cavity size is normal. Left ventricular thickness is increased in a pattern of mild concentric left ventricular hypertrophy. EF would be estimated at 55%. The left atrium is normal.

2. The right ventricle is prominent. However, it appears to be contracting appropriately in the short axis views. The right atrium is mildly enlarged. There is redundancy in the atrial septum. The atrial septum bows from right-to-left.

3. The mitral valve appears to be mildly thickened. There is moderate mitral annular calcification.

4. The tricuspid valve demonstrates echodnesity surrounding the annulus suggesting a prior tricuspid valve repair or replacement.

5. There is no significant pericardial effusion.

6. The aortic root is at the upper limits of mildly dilated.

The Doppler interrogation of the aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves reveals the following:

1. Mild tricuspid regurgitation
2. Pseudonormal diastolic parameters suggesting mild diastolic dysfunction.
3. Mild prosthetic vavle aortic insufficiency. The velocity through the prosthetic aortic valve reaches a peak of 2.3 meters per second, which results in a mean gradient of 13 mmHg and a peak gradient of 22 mmHg. The pressure half-time is somewhat prominent and reaches a nadir of 320msec. The signal, however, is not well defined. This may be an overestimation of the aortic insufficiency and by visualization of the color signal, it appears to be mild to moderate aortic insufficiency.
4. The tricuspid inflow velocities are normal after the tricuspid valve repair. The RVSP is not reliably estimated from this study.

Conclusion:
1. Normal left ventricular function
2. Normally functioning prostethic aortic valve repair and the tricuspid valve appears to have mild to moderate regurgitation only.
END OF REPORT

Can anyone tell me exactly what this means? My husband and I are totally lost at this point. I think my EF is good, but not really sure. Also, not sure if I should call my surgeon and let me have a copy of this report to verify that everything is ok at this point. Thanks again all!
 
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