Can you tell the difference?

[William Wilson]

By taking an ecg can the doc tell from the results whether your heart is slightly enlarged due to physical activity or some other cause like hbp? and on average how long would it take for mild hypertension 140/85 to lead to lvh if at all?

thanks for your time

[CCF CARDIO MD JMF]

An ecg will tell you if you have Left ventricular hypertrophy.  Each individual will respond differently to an elevation in blood pressure and the time to develope LVH is variable.  some may never develope it some will.

[hansen]

What about uncontrolled mild high bp and moderate weight lifting?
Will the combination of two would have greater impact on LVH? Thanks.

Hansen

[CCF CARDIO MD JMF]

Either of these may increase the LV thickness. But the degree to which this may or may not happen will depend on the individual.

[Cathy]

How is it determined whether left ventricular hypertrophy IS caused by elevated blood pressure, or athletics? My son developed sudden hypertension and when he had his cardiac testing, already had evidence of LVH, right atrial enlargement, mild mitral valve prolapse and tricuspid insufficiency. The numerous doctors we have seen tell us he has an "athletic heart" and in the next breath tell us that the abnormalities are caused by the hypertension. Any ideas on how to differentiate between the two?

[CCF CARDIO MD JMF]

I realize that this is confusing to many people.  LVH is the end result of various processes that put additional strain on the heart. Remeber, that the heart is a muscle and will increase in size with an increases in pressure ( much like increasing the weights in weight lifting) or an increase in repetitions ( much like performing endurance training). A well-trained athlete, a person with a tight valve or a person with hypertension may all develope this.  To the best of our knowledge, there is no way to differentiate.

The important thing is to identify the potential causes of your son's hypertension and treat it aggressively so that hypertension will not cause problems to his arteries as well as his heart.

[Cathie]

What kind of problems can it cause for the arteries and what tests are done to determine if the arteries are being affected? Is there any correlation between these things and drastic weight loss with periorbital edema and a sudden change in pupils (dilated, unequal and primarily unreactive to light, especially in the evenings).

[CCF CARDIO MD JMF]

Hypertension will also cause hypertrophy and blockages to develope prematurely in the arteries.  
This is unlikely to be related to the symdrome that you describe.