Cardiomegaly in 30 year old

My son is 30 years old and diagnosed with very enlarged heart and very weak heart a few days ago. I am a RN and sent him to the doctor after he had a syncope episode at my house when he lifted our piano. Could taking tegretol for siezures as a child cause this damage to his heart as an adult? He was on the medication for several years. He no longer has siezures. He does not smoke or drink. I do not understand what could have caused such severe cardiomegaly.

[grendslori]

I think all mothers question this when their child ends up with a cardiomyopathy. I know I did; I've never stopped questioning it. When I was pregnant for my daughter, I took several different types of heart medication: Dig, Inderal, Quinadine......my daughter was diagnosed with with a very severe form of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy that affected all of the walls of the ventricles as well as the septum. She also had leaking of all four valves as well as a ton of electrical problems: W-P-W, Sick Sinus Syndrome, RBBB, LBBB and a Maheim Fiber. The NIH told us that she was one of the worse cases they had ever seen. Was this caused by the medicines? I don't know. The electrical problems could have been caused by the coxsacke virus, but that virus doesn't cause HCM. She was diagnosed at 6 years of age. She had a transplant at 22 and she is now 31. She has never drank or smoked either. I doubt that the tegretol caused your son's problem; if it did than there would be a lot more kids around this country with cardiomyopathy being caused by this drug. Sometimes, cardiomyopathies just happen, sometimes they are genetic.  

[fluffy0]

Thanks for your comments. Sorry about your daughter. I am finding out more about my son's conditon also. He has all 4 valves leaking and RBBB. His heart size is 45 cm. He is scheduled for a cardiac cath on Tuesday May 19th. Maybe I will get some answers, but I have a feeling I will just have more questions. He has 3 beautiful small children and I can't bear the thought of him not being here for them. I would give him my heart in a minute. My children and grandchildren are my life. How long did your daughter have to wait for a heart on the transplant list? If you don't mind me asking?
fluffy0

[grendslori]

A lot depends on the type of cardiomyopathy that your son has ibn terms of his prognosis. I hope you will keep me posted on his progress, fluffy. I think my daughter was on the transplant list for about a year when we got the first call. I say the first call because she had had bronchitis and was on her last two days of antibiotics; they couldn't do the transplant; we waited another 8 months and she got the heart at that time. Her heart was so bad, they were stunned that she was still alive. The heart really is such a remarkable organ! I don't know the size of her heart at that point; I do know that at 6 years of age, all of the walls were the thickness of a grown man and that as a teen-ager her walls were 4cm thick. The chambers of the heart (at transplant) had 'bridges' of muscle fibers criss-crossing through them; it was really bad.

[fluffy0]

My son made through the cath on the 19th but on the second time out of bed to ambulate he had vagal response in which his blood pressure bottomed out and heart rate dropped into the 30's. They had to put the IV back in quickly and give him atropine IV. They decided to keep him over night. I sent his wife home with the 3 small children (baby is 6 months old) and I stayed in the chair at his bedside all night. He was stable at 7am the next morning and I brought him home. Dr. Darnell, the cardiologist said something as simple as a cold or virus could have caused this heart enlargement as recent as in the last year or a while back. There were no blockages and no heart attacks previously. He was sent home on Coreg 6.25 mg 2x day, Lanoxin 0.25 mg, and Lisinopril 10mg. The idea is to rest the workload on the heart, decrease the pressure inside and see if it will decrease in size. If the heart size has not improved in 8 months, they are going to implant a defibrillator. I ask about sudden cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death d/t the size of the heart the MD said it was a risk but a small one right now d/t his ejection fraction is still 35-40%. My son is a LPN and he was instructed once over the cath to return to work as normal. I don't let him know how concerned I am about the possibilities of the medication failing and his shortened life span if they don't work. I encourage him to believe that all we are doing will work and deep in my heart I pray that it will. I will keep you updated about his progress. How is your daughter doing now?

[grendslori]

Hello again Fluffy. The doctor is right in what he told you. Dilated Cardiomyopathies are of ten times caused by a virus and that could have happened at any time in your son's lifetime. Are they planning on doing a Tilt Test on him? My daughter has her good and bad days at this point. She has had 3 bouts of Congestive heart failure over the last few years with this transplanted heart; I keep wondering what is going to happen next and try not to push her for information now on how things ae going. She's an adult at this point, living like the teen she was never able to be! Life can be so interesting.