can a hypertensive patient have a normal echocardiograph?

Answer 1

An EKG is produced by recording the electrical activity of the heart, as the impulse is produced and conducted through the muscle. It has nothing to do with measuring the pressure that the blood is being pumped at through the veins and arteries. Elevated blood pressure can have many other causes other than a problem with the heart itself, and usually hypertensive patients have otherwise healthy functioning hearts. It's the uncontrolled hypertension which damages the heart. That's why doctors use a BP cuff to determine blood pressure, and an EKG to check on the electrical function. They are not the same thing and don't check the same things.

Answer 2

Yes, he or she can.

An echocardiograph creates an image of the heart and can be used to see defects, such as dead areas of tissue from past heart attacks, or valve problems. It does not generally measure how hard the heart is working.

Hypertension, or elevated blood pressure, cannot usually be seen on an echo, because while the echo gives an image of the heart, it cannot tell how hard the heart is working to push blood through the vessels.

A different heart test, the electrocardiograph, or ECG, can show electrical abnormalities in the heart that are suggestive of disease processes which can cause hypertension, but that's a whole different test. It looks at the electrical impulses in the heart, and shows them as a graph, rather than an actual image of the heart.

If a doctor has ordered a echo for you, it's because he or she wants to see an image of your heart and look for things like thickness of walls and different structures. That's pretty much all they can see on a basic echo.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

That depends on what you mean by "normal." In most of the areas checked by an echocardiogram, yes. The valves, the blood flow and speed, the turbulance of the blood in the chambers, and the size--and thus the relative size--of the chambers, all can be quite normal with hypertension.

However, there are a couple of tests in the echocardiogram that will show abnormal in the hypertensive patient. If you had one, or will have one, you will be asked at one point to take a deep breath. Then, a little later, to sniff quickly. When you do that, the echocardiogram will show whether the veins and arteries around your heart contract as they should. In the hypertensive patient they will not, a clear and immediate sign (even the tech running the machine will be able to spot it) of hypertension.

So, for most of the test, yes. In all of the test, no.

Answer 4

Reading through your answers, it sounds as if people are confusing an echocardiogram (Echo) with an electrocardiograph (EKG). Unfortunately there is no such thing as an echogardiograph as you have asked, so I am unsure what the exact question is.

However, to answer both possibilities in brief: YES, you can have hypertension and have a normal echo and a normal EKG. In more detail:

1.An ECHOCARDIOGRAM is a doppler of your heart which is used to visualize the heart to assess heart motion, heart valves, and anatomic structures. Chronic HTN can cause left ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement of the left ventricle) which will show up on an echo, and most people will develop this if left untreated.

2.An ELECTROCARDIOGRAPH measures the electrical activity and is used primarily for to evaluate for arrhythmia's (abnormal rhythms) and ischemia (lack of blood flow from heart attacks or others). However the EKG can also show signs of hypertension, once the left ventricle enlarges due to prolonged HTN, just as every muscle will get larger when working harder, it will show on the EKG as higher voltages in certain leads. However it also can be completely normal in early HTN.

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

The echocardiogram is the standard test for assessing the effects of hypertension on the heart. If you have mild hypertension or have had elevated blood pressure for only a short time, your echocardiogram could be normal.

Only a cardiologist can tell you for sure, however.

Answer 6

yes - I have been hypertensive for 16 years and as far as I know produce normal echocardiographs - as I understand it these graphs signify damage / strange behaviour - just because you have high blood pressure does not mean you are damaged

Answer 7

as long as there's nothing else wrong with the heart, then the ekg/ecg should be normal...

the ecg shows electrical activity in the heart, as in the rhythmic flow of charge through the heart, not necessarily measuring pressure

hypertension is usually caused by the heart beating the blood too strong into the arteries (hence the increased pressure on the arterial walls), a sphygmomanometer (or blood pressure cuff) can measure the level of pressure

Answer 8

Yes. Just because you have hypertension doest mean you have something wrong with your heart.... IE arrhythmia or murmur.

Answer 9

Yes, only the EKG will show tachycardia - elevated heart rate!!

Answer 10

Yes quiet possible