Help with Echocardiogram results???????

Question

My results state RV & LV size and function Normal (ef 60%)
Trivial mitral & mild tricuspid regurgitation, right ventricular systolic pressure estimated to be 40mmHg (mild pulminary hypertension?)
Also, there is an interarterial septal aneurysm with evidence of left to right shunting after saline injection..
Am 39 and seem very healthy, cannot stop worrying about this and cardiologist cant meet for 1 week. Can anyone help let me know if this is serious?????

Answer 1

I'll try to help. "RV & LV size and function normal." The is the right and left ventricles, the lower chambers of your heart. You can see they are fine and normal.

"EF 60%." This your ejection fraction and is a measurement of the blood that your heart pumps out of the left ventricle. 60% is fine and very good.

"Trivial mitral and mild tricuspid regurgitation." This will take longer to explain and you must know something about the structure and function of the heart. It has 4 chambers, two atria left & right and below these are two ventricles, left & right. Blood returns to the heart into the right atrium. It leaves the atrium through a valve, the tricuspid valve, and enters the left ventricle. When blood returns to the heart from the lungs, it enters the left atrium and passes through the mitral valve down into the left ventricle. The job of the mitral and tricuspid valves is to shut tightly and prevent blood from flowing back into the chamber it just came from. When valves are defective for whatever reason, they don't shut completely or sometimes shut then open a little and blood backflows. This is regurgitation and is sometimes called a murmur. It can be severe but in your case you can see that with the mitral valve (in the left heart) the "regurge" is trivial and in the right heart with the tricuspid valve, the regurge is mild.

Pulmonary hypertension, or pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), is an increased blood pressure in the arteries of your lungs. 40mm/Hg is an estimate of the pressure and this will have be investigated further with additional diagnostic tests to get an accurate reading. The estimate is mild hypertension (also abbreviated HTN).

"Interarterial (must be interatrial) septal aneurysm". Again, I need to explain something first. The 2 atria and the 2 ventricles are separated from eachother (atrium from atrium, etc.) by a thin wall, what are called the septa (plural), septum (singular). An atrial aneurysm is a bulging or ballooning in the septal wall of the atrium (Remember the septum?) and there must be a septal defect because when saline is injected, it passes through the defect from the left atrium to the right. That's what the "shunting" is. There should be no communication between the two atria in the adult heart. You may already be familiar with aortic aneurysms. Now you've learned about a new one.

I don't wish to alarm you unncessarily and I hope no one else will either, but it's a very, very good thing you had your ECHO when you did. So enjoy your week and look forward to your follow up with the cardiologist, okay?

Answer 2

you've lived for 39 years with these issues, you won't drop dead before you see the doctor and can discuss them. I've seen people with a whole lot worse going on and living for years.