The Anonymous Widower

Have I Lived All My Life With A Leaky Heart Valve?

A few days ago, whilst looking for an old post, I came across this post called Medical Progress.

This was a paragraph.

On Wednesday the stroke doctor had told me that I had a leaky valve. Now sometimes I think I can tell when it starts to leak. Or am I imagining things. I just push myself too hard and then I get a bit breathless, but if I get a rhythm going, I can pedal for over an hour. Especially in Holland, where they have abolished hills by law.

Normally, I remember most of the posts I have written, but as it was twelve years ago, I think I can be excused forgetting it.

A couple of years ago, I had some heart scans that appear to be puzzling doctors, or at least one, who sent me a copy of an internal mail.

I wonder whether you could arrange a stress echo for this gentleman who transthoracic echo results are confusing. One GP echo suggested mild/moderate AS with a vmax which was inconsistent with this and a Barts echo suggested severe AS by valve area (0.9) but again a low vmax. It was suggested that this was low flow AS but the LV function is only mildly down so this does not really hang together. He does seem to have moderate MR on his most recent echo and a history of AF (on Warfarin).

He has no symptoms attributable to Aortic Valve disease.

Would a stress echo help here and if so would you be able to do this please. I’d value your opinion.

The outcome was that I went for the stress test. It was confirmed, that I had a leaking valve, but it wasn’t that serious and I didn’t have the stress test. It’s described in My Cardiac Echo Stress Test.

Conclusion

I am tempted to believe, that I’ve always had the leaky valve. Is that possible?

But then my medical history is a bit strange. Read My Unusual Body for a bit of background.

October 30, 2022 - Posted by AnonW | Health | My Health