Question Title: left ventricular hypertrophy

my father age:52 is about to have a transphenoidal hyposectechtomy for removing a recurrent and previously benign non secreting macroadenoma. All his hormone levels except testosterone are normal. During an echo cardiogram test a few days ago we found in the report. My father is not obese and regularly walks 4 miles a day along with doing yoga...

The report showed
Left Ventricle
1. Mild hypertrophy
2. evidence of diastolic dysfunction
3. VEF=63%
4. EF=61%
5. Normal contractibility
The report specified that everything else including the valves was normal.

my questions are
what does this mean?
is it connected to hormoal levels?
2 years back the echo cardiogram was normal can it happen so fast?
what is the long term prognosis?
is it reversible or can it be controlled?

---

_

Dear Sam, thank you for your question. The bottom line is that your father's heart is in pretty good shape. Diastolic dysfunction refers to a process that occurs when the walls of the left ventricle thicken to impede filling of the left ventricle with blood during the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle. I suspect that your father may have had undiagnosed high blood pressure (that may have been mild) that caused the mild hypertrophy of the left ventricular walls. On the echocardiogram, he may have evidence of diastolic dysfunction, but if he has no symptoms (shortness of breath, fatigue, inability to exercise), then I think this is an echo finding that may not be clinically significant. He should have his blood pressure closely monitored and treated if it is found to be elevated. If high blood pressure is treated, the hypertrophy may regress and there may be no more echo evidence of "diastolic dysfunction." Thus, I think he has a good prognosis and this will not get in the way of his surgery. Finally, the hormonal levels are not involved.

I hope you find this information useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only. Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions. Good luck.

If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.

---