Enlarged Heart Classed As Heart Failure?
Jul 15, 2014
Is an enlarged heart classed as heart failure?
View 9 RepliesIs an enlarged heart classed as heart failure?
View 9 RepliesI'm 56. Several years ago I was dx with chronic diastolic dysfunction failure. With help from diuretics I lost 100 pounds in fluid. I was stunned when diagnosed. I still am and have trouble believing it. Lately I've had nagging coughs. I'm here to find out if anyone else has experienced this coughing and also had trouble with acceptance.
View 1 RepliesMy mom is 91. She has CHF and with watching salt, has been controlled quite well. She will get some edema in the both lower legs and ankle and feet but that has in the past gone down. She has developed this ankle / foot fluid edema in the left foot for 2 weeks. Can't get it to go down. Went to her heart doc. Said to begin Lasix 20 mg for 3 days. Its not gone yet...on third day. Urinating a lot. She's watching salt now close. Is it rare for edema and fluid to be in ONE ANKLE/FOOT? She has one kidney. Actually she can get quite dehydrated often.
Kidney is usually ok. She was diagnosed with peripheral artery disease but that hasn't been an issue for quite a while. Can I please get comments on what kind of treatment long term is she looking at. She's only 5 ft tall and not overweight. Should she get the stockings if she also has perph artery disease?
After you start Lasix, will it take a few days to do down?
Pills for RA are not working for me so rheumatologist is suggesting self-injected Humira or Enbrel. I read the side effects and they are scary. Especially it can cause heart failure even if you don't have a bad heart. I'd like to hear from any of you who are on these drugs and your experience with them.
View 2 RepliesMy 19 yr old son was admitted to the hospital on Friday. His heart afib, His organs were failing as well. He was drinking very high caffeinated soda's as well as energy drinks daily allot of caffeine, Everyone told him to stop drinking so many. All he did was stay in his room playing video games or on the pc from 11 am til 5 am the next day. He ate well, rarely drank any water, then a month ago, he stopped eating, vomited anything he drank or ate. Then he started drinking a gal of water a day, or chewing on gum or candy. Was burping allot, then his heart was beating fast so we took him in. Now I'm told he has an enlarged heart. Where did this come from? He's the healthiest one in the family. He's had maybe three colds since birth. Could all the caffeine and other ingredients do this to him?
View 1 RepliesI'm 34 years old and I've been diagnosed with a swollen heart muscle. I've got a number of symptoms my GP believes are connected to the unknown underlying issue causing it (eg fluid in my lungs restricting my breathing, very low platelet count and heart palpitations). However, I'm on a 2-3 month waiting list for tests in the public hospital to determine the cause.
Does anyone know the main cause for a swollen/ enlarged heart muscle, and especially given my symptoms?
The Doctors have ruled out use of stimulants and blood pressure issues. They did mention the possibility of a diseased heart valve or perhaps a clogged artery.
what are the diseases that cause enlarged heart? and what can I do to help with this problem are I am doomed to die with it without notice? mine was inherited . my older brother has it and my son has it. just here lately found this out . I new about mine , but not of there's. I was told by a doctor twenty years ago after doing a stress test that the heart was slightly enlarged and he also said I had the heartbeat of an Athlete, meaning that when I worked out my heart would raise up and when I stopped it would fall back to normal beat quickly.
Tonight I went to the urgent care clinic because my asthma was really acting up, doctor thought it may be pneumonia, so he had my chest x-rayed. They found that I don't have pneumonia, but they did notice that my heart was enlarged. I now have an appointment with my regular doctor on Tuesday who will probably send me to a cardiologist for tests. I am 28 years old, trying to lose weight, and I am afraid I am going to die young. I can't shake the anxiety off. I am freaked out that doing any slight exercise is going to send me into cardiac arrest. I didn't mention the findings to my husband because I don't want him to be worried if it is nothing. I am just really scared and I don't know what to do or what to expect.
View 3 RepliesI just had surgery on Thursday and I needed to get a refill of my pain meds from my GP. While I was on the phone with her I asked her what my most recent chest X-ray showed, she said my lungs were fine but it showed a slight enlarged heart. She would not discuss it with me so needless to say I'm scared I'm going to die. I have been trying to lose weight and have gone from a size 22 to a size 14/16 which is still not good enough. they sent me a letter to say that my blood pressure was up and that my last GP had diagnosed me with stage 1 hypertension.
So now I'm scared I'm going to need a heart transplant since Google said that people with enlarged hearts sometimes need transplants and surgery. I eat right and try my best to exercise and do the right thing, all my blood work is good and I don't have raised cholesterol. Can this be from my recent two month plus cardio training? Is my heat enlarging from that? I also lost over 14 1/2 lbs and have changed over to a Paelo diet. What else can I do?? I don't want it die at 42 from a heart problem
I had a ecg and they've referred me for an echogram because they think although the ecg said normal they think I could have an enlarged heart and I'm literally so scared. Can you live with an enlarged heart? I heard that it causes cardiac arrests I'm literally so scared I'm gonna have a cardiac arrest any second
View 8 RepliesJust seen my results from my ultrasound and it said my baby heart is enlarged. What does that mean? I'm really worried...has anyone else had this problem?
View 8 RepliesI'm 16 years old and I have just now started to notice my heart beating differently, like when you're heart feels like it skips a beat but it is happening like 5 minutes or so. Also my chest has felt tight and I have been wheezing when I am running which hasn't happened before.
View 1 RepliesMy wife recently was told after an echo that the left side of her heart was only pumping at 20%. Having a CT scan done in a couple days. She's 64 and a non smoker. Came on all of a sudden. Can someone explain.
View 1 RepliesI went to urgent care for chest pains I was having the night before. The doctor did an EKG, blood test, and chest X-ray. He went over all the results and said everything was okay. He went over the chest x ray and said my heart was a little bit above average size and said it was no big deal. But I went home and looked that up and it seems like a pretty big deal. Now I can't stop stressing about it and my anxiety has been awful all night and day.
View 4 RepliesI have had heart problems for 18 months now, i haven't been diagnosed with a specific cause yet but the cardiologist is looking at Myocarditis or Heart failure. My symptoms are worse so i went the docs and he had a xray done the results said i had an enlarged heart so he now wants me to have a echo again to see what is happening. I cant seem to find much about enlarged hearts and the mortality .
View 15 RepliesMy 40 year-old wife in recent months has undergone a number of tests following some weight loss. It transpires that she is suffering from hypertension with her 24hr ambulatory readings averaging at 170/110. Further diagnostic tests (ECG, echo and cardiac MRI) were undertaken and her cardiologist told her that her heart is enlarged (moderate) with impaired function (I believe ejection fraction in the region of 45%) but has not been able to identify the root cause of the hypertension. She is asymptomatic and does not have any issues in terms of fatigue, breathlessness, swelling, etc.
She has been prescribed 5mg Amlodipine, 5mg Ramipril and 2.5mg Bisoprolol. The Cardiologist has told her she will be on medication for longevity and that improving the condition will take a long time. Her blood pressure has already come down to 132/84 which the cardiologist was very pleased with. She will be seeing him again in 8/9 weeks with a follow up echo in 4/5 months.
In terms of the diagnosis, the cardiologist has referred only to hypertension but having read and aligned the symptoms of the enlarged heart and impaired function, is it not heart failure.....? Also, what is the prognosis for an enlarged heart caused by hypertension, especially in someone of 40 years of age.....can the enlarged heart and function return to normal over time with the medication?
I have a relative who has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart. My father died of an enlarged heart 25 years ago. so its in the family.
I am an engineer so I can understand a simple explanation that if your heart gets bigger but the muscle doesn't get stronger then the pressure it can pump falls away and you have a problem of insufficient blood flow and low blood pressure. Drugs that make the heart work harder are only going to wear the muscles out faster unless you can make them grow so they are again in the right proportion to the heart size.
One drastic solution I heard of is that instead of making the muscles grow or just work harder we make the pump back to its old efficiency. Heart too Big? Then just make it smaller. The idea is that the surgeon just cuts a wedge out of the muscle and sews the remaining heart back together. It all then heals and you have as good as new, I can't imagine what you do while it heals but I am only an engineer and I expect the heart experts to have such issues covered. After all swapping a heart out is now routine.
I was told by my GP yesterday that I may have Heart Failure due to the results from my xray showing I have a enlarged heart. She sent me today to have a load of blood tests one being the BNP,NT-pro. I am really scared as my sister died of a heart attack last November without warning. But I am really annoyed has she had the results from the x ray since the 1/4/15 and I only could find out on the 16/4/15..Has anybody found out this way before and what is the prognosis I get everyone is different. But in general.
View 18 RepliesMy fast heart rate (sinus tachycardia) started when i was about 17-18. I was a healthy active kid up until i got dropped from high school and i isolated myself from everyone except family and literally sat in a room playing video games all day everyday. Didnt eat much, not alot of water... I was sabotaging myself and i didnt even know it. I honestly was depressed. Then came pots. My heart was plummeting to around 100-300 bpm just from walking or attempting to walk. I felt really desperate and i bet the cause of my symptoms were lack of certain nutrients, magnesium, potassium... Etc. I went to a cardiologist, got a full workup and my heart looked 100 percent perfectly normal. I then tried beta blockers (big mistake) Metoprolol was not bad, but it gave me sharp chest pains so i got off it. Could it be that these sharp chest pains were caused by lack of potassium or magnesium while taking beta blockers, which was my heart telling me this is a mistake? Long story short... I was enormously uninformed on the effects of not getting enough magnesium, potassium, etc for the heart. I would have never tried meds. The cardiologists i went to didn't even acknowledge that or test me for low levels. I didnt have a pcp at the time. Its almost 1 year later and im still in the same boat. But now, my heart does not beat the same. Compared to before, it feels as if my heart has a much more forceful and stronger pump. Which would indicate a enlarged heart, or possibly heart block? Growing up i had absolutely no awareness of my heartbeat... Even when i use to exercise. That feeling feels so distant now because it feels like im getting 24/7 palpitations. I could feel my heart all the time and i now have high blood pressure, and i didn't have this before. Will my heart ever be the same again? It feels as if i completely sabotaged my heart and precipitated heart problems that i didn't have.
View 5 RepliesI have a heart rate most of the time from 42 to 50 BPM , my blood pressure is usually 145 to 160 over 75 to 80. My cardiologist has me taking 75 mg, of Lopressor, 360 mg, of verapamil, .4 mg nitroglycerin patch. And now he wants to add 10 mg of Ramipril ( Altace ) a day, my recent cardiograms have have shown sinus bradycardia. That's before starting the Ramipril , I'm just very leary about starting the Ramipril in first of all the highest dose there is, and second of all it could further lower my heart rate and send my heart into an AV Block that could lead to many things not good !
View 2 RepliesI'm going to be completely honest and as thorough as possible, I'm an addict, and I've had an addiction to stimulants for the last year and a half (consisting of about 95% amphetamine usage, never used methamphetamine). I usually keep my doses anywhere around 10-60mg cause I never wanted to over do it. Unfortunately, last week I dove in deep to my addiction due to a recent break up, about 4 days ago I did around 130 mg spread out through the day, I felt fine until I took my very last dose (30 mg about), at that point it only increased negative side effects.
After a while of feeling odd and stuff, I began to have trouble breathing and chest pains (I can't remember which started first), it kind of felt like they coincided, but I still would get very minor and infrequent pain without breathing, it felt like I couldn't take a full breath of air, and when I did the chest pain would kick in (more), it felt like a tightening pain. My left arm soon became somewhat numb and tingly, not numb like when you accidentally sleep on it, but just a little numbing that felt like it stretched down my arm through a single vein, the numbness was generally more intense under my armpit and bicep area, and would intensify when I rubbed certain areas. I had a very sore/stiff neck, especially around the area between my shoulder blades and neck, it wasn't on one side, it was mostly in the middle (my neck and back are still sore after this experience, as well as the tingling sensation in my arm but its not at all that bad, and it comes and goes). I had anxiety during this event, and I felt like when people would talk to me I wasn't truly comprehending what they would say, but yet I still was able to reply to them, I just didn't say much or think about what I was saying, I only could pay attention to what was happening to me. I felt like things were kind of slowed down and I was very fatigued and zoned out. I felt as if I was slowly meeting my demise. I believe I got cold sweats a couple times, but not much. I had some heart burn later that night, and the next but its gone.
It came across to me that maybe this was a panic attack but the pain lasted 2-3 hours, after that it wasn't horrible, but it was still somewhat there, and the mental aspect of a panic attack wasn't that intense. I also do think that my left arm may just have "mouse arm" (cant remember medical term), cause I use a computer a lot, a part of my muscle/tendon in my hand has been sore for a while, and it is somewhat acting up now as I type. I really am not sure if a lot of this is me overreacting, or just a placebo effect (I hope so). I've had minor chest pains since I was 13 (I just turned 18), and every time I went in to get my heart checked out, they said I was fine, and that I had a slight irregular heart beat but it was nothing to worry about and a lot of people have it but don't know.
I also have this weird problem with my thought process either that started the night of the incident, or I haven't noticed before. The only way I can explain it is as if my brain buffers for a moment when I go back and forth between two thoughts, it's like I over excite the neurons responsible for those thoughts and I end up overriding my brain for a brief second with confusion, then it's fine. I do have some chest pains now, but it isn't very often, and honestly happens mostly when I think about it or worry about it (same with the left arm), which is why I think I could be conning my self about this entire incident, because I've had panic attacks before but they weren't as bad and were more mental than physical.
It's dumb of me but I never went into the doctors cause 1. I was too paranoid to go in, and 2. I don't want to worry my mom or waste her money just so the doc's (possibly) find nothing. I haven't lately because all I've been doing is researching about this stuff, off and on I think I'm fine and then I don't. So I came here to settle it once and for all, I have a doctors appt. next week anyways so if you guys don't think its serious (I don't, but it could be denial) I'll just wait until then, if it is then I'll go now. I know everybody says "If its your heart then don't risk it", but every time I go in for my heart, it's always nothing.
My family nor myself have a history of heart disease, diabetes, or just flat out obesity. I'm very fit, just oddly muscular for my age, but I don't work out as often as I should now-a-days. I also smoke cigarettes, and my heart pains/arm numbness do come back a bit when I have a cig, but then again it could just be my head. The last time I had any form of a heart test was probably about a year or two ago, it was an EKG and I believe a blood test, but my memory is a bit foggy in that area. My heart rate is normal, I don't know about my blood pressure, but I believe I got a test for it lying somewhere around my house. My last dose of amphetamines was today, yes I know its stupid, but it's literally my last dose (I weaned myself off).
Oh and I did have sex last night, being in the moment I may have over did it (I usually get this feeling just without the numbing), my heart pounded like hell, I got heart burn during it, my left arm and leg became pretty numb, I was kind of tremor-ish, and that's it. Once I orgasmed the numbing went away (except for under my armpit area), and my heart was fine, but beating pretty fast (110bpm).
So do you think I likely had a heart attack? Or do you think it's something else? Or a combination of things? Or simply nothing but a placebo affect or panic attack? And by the way how long does numbing of the left-arm and chest pains last after having a heart attack?