New Echo Results in _________ Now am I in the waiting room ???

[Roxx_yer_Soxx]

Ok gang.... shoot me straight....I gotta stiff upper lip, and I'm ready to fight the beast head on. So my Echo results came in the mail today..... some things are a real bummer, some thing are good!! Either way, I feel great, look good...working out 5 days a week.... no problems.

The good: I feel great, no stenosis or regurge on the Aortic Valve, no restrictions, and my doctor does follow ups every 9 months.... simply said "see you in June."
The bad: Aortic root was 3.4 June of 09' this reading says 3.8. :frown2:
The 2009 talked about a STRONG almost "too powerful Ejection Fraction of 66%, this one describes "lower limits of normal" at just about 50%........ which I find ODD as I have upped my running and cardio from 09 to 2010.


The numbers


RVIDd 2.7
IVSd 0.8
LVIDd 4.7
PWDd 0.8
LVIDs 3.3
MV excursion 1.5
EF slope 119
Aortic root 3.8
ACS 2.6
LA 2.8
AV Max Vel 1.6
LVOT Vel 1.0
AVA 2.5
MV E Vel. 0.9
A Vel. 0.7
Decel Time 215
TV E Vel 0.6
A. Vel 0.6
PV Max Vel. 0.9
TR Pressure 15

2d echo & M mode findings:Left Ventricular size within normal limits. Left Ventricular systolic lower range of normal at 52% (note: at last years ECHO it was 66% and they said that was kind of too forceful, now they are calling low 50's just barely normal...odd) Right atrial size within normal limite. Right ventricular size within normal limits. Mitral Valve is anatomically normal. Tricuspid Valve is normal. Pulmonic Valve is normal. Aortic Valve is possibly bicuspid, but given the technical difficulty of the study, it was difficult to visualize. There is no sign of vegetation or thrombi. There is no pericardial effusion. IVC size is normal. Aortic arch did not show any significant abnormalities.

COLOR AND SPECTRAL DOPPLER
There is evidence of trivial MR. Mild TR. No significant AS or AI. Inspection of the mitral annular flow showed normal E/A ratio. Estimated LV systolic pressure less than 20.


So give it to me straight....5 years?? 10? maaaaaaybe 15?? when do I join the zipper club?

 

[ski girl]

Hey Roxx I'm not a doctor, but you seem pretty healthy to me!! Your valve area is 2.5? I lived quite happily for 39 years with MUCH less than that, and was racing competitively with an AVA of 1.0, so in that regard I'm not surprised you are feeling great and working out. Echos aren't 100% accurate and if you have a different tech each time, you'll get differences based on their technique, how much of a rush they're in, etc.

As an example, AVA is measured based on the modified Bernoulli's equation which assumes that the area being measured is a perfect circle . . . it isn't . . . . In 1999 I had an echo that put my AVA at 0.6 and two years later it was mysteriously 1.1. So don't get too tied up in the numbers!

In terms of time before you join the zipper club, I was told that my heart would go downhill but not at a rate that anyone could predict. Are you in the 'waiting room'? To continue with that analogy,and reiterating that I'm not a doctor, I think you haven't even called for an appointment yet.

 

[Jkm7]

There isn't usually any predicting how long or if you will absolutely need surgery. You might get lucky and stay stable for a long time. Many of us here have found when the worse our valves got the faster they worsened..... that was the case with me. I was stable for a while but when it went bad, it went bad fast.