I've been symptomatic with PFO for about
14 years (I'm 28), and have had migraines since age 3. When I started having heart related symptoms I was very active and it would only happen when I ran. I would get lightheaded/dizzy, heart pounding very fast, short of breath, vision would go dark, hearing would go out, etc. Over the years this has gotten worse, to the point where I cannot do much of anything and my symptoms occur.
I've had TEE to confirm PFO, and had Echo's w/ bubble study, bubble brain study (can't recall the name), Holter monitors, heart MRI (which showed no other structural abnormalities), and a Stress Echo on treadmill. Other than having the PFO, there's not much else going on. How can this be? My symptoms are constant and impacting my life terribly. I'm 5'6" and 120 lbs, and I have 2 small children that I should be able to run around with and play with. My cholesterol is high due to heredity, at 286. We will definitely work on fixing that.
During my Stress Echo, I started feeling symptomatic within 1-2 minutes and my heart rate immediately went to 140's. I pushed myself to go for nearly 9 minutes, with my heart rate going to 180's. I did not feel well at all. Today I got the results and am confused. The "Resting Findings" are all listed, but under "Stress Findings" only LV is listed. It basically says my LV is normal. What about
all the other parts of my heart that are listed under "Resting"?? What happens to them during exercise, which is the whole reason I thought we were doing the test...to see what my heart does during exercise. It also says trace mitral regurgitation and trace functional tricuspid regurgitation, which I've read are nothing to worry about
...but I'm curious if it gets worse during exertion.
Does everyone's report only discuss the LV under Stress? Shouldn't it have more info on the rest of the heart during exercise?
Post Edited (hearty_soup) : 8/19/2009 8:20:33 PM (GMT-6)