Heart enlargement

[Laverne]

Aloha I asked this Question as a comment to another question and
then realized that wasn't the proper form. My husband 59 was diagnost in 11/98 with leaking valve. His Dr said no worrys , you can live with this , you probably had it as a child.
He went in for another echo last week and found 25% heart enlargement and said immed surgery. We were stunned to say the least. He spent 6 yrs in the Marine corp if he had this as a young man I would of thought they would have discovered it.
1. What would cause this to accelerate so fast?
2. If we had not gone back for the second echo what could of happened?
3. Can the enlargement be reversed?
4. Also he took fen phen in 1996 for weight loss , could this have any effect on him .
Thank You for any help you can give,we live on a small Island and there aren't any resources here . Sincerely Laverne

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Aloha.  It's not entirely clear to me what you mean by 25% enlargement as this is not a standard term.  However, one indication for valve replacement is the enlargement of the ventricle.  It is known that heart function can worsen in individuals with valve problems and this is not surprising.  fen/phen can affect valves but is probably not the cause in this case.

[Laverne]

Aloha from Hawaii, Thank you for responding. Today after waiting for two weeks with list of questions in hand, we went to see the cardiologist. Unfortunatly he was called away on emergency. I asked the nurse for a copy of the results of the echo. It looks like its a persitent moderate aortic insufficiency with scerosis of the aortic valve. plus other facts and figures. such as trivial mitral insufficiency and mild tricuspid insuf. Can you help us make sence of this. I would appreciate it. Sincerely, Laverne

[Todd]

The heart can shrink back to normal size if it doesn't get too large - mine ventricle was 5.7cm, 6months after surgery and 4.7 cm 1 year after surgery.  I had mod - severe aortic leakage prior to surgery - I don't know what my ventricle size was prior to surgery but it was larger than 5.7 I'm sure.  I believe that less than 5 cm is considered normal - the 5.7 cm I think was considered high normal.  I was 33 when I found out about my valve and had no symptoms.  Good Luck.

[Justine St.Martin]

A good friend has just been told that she has an enlarged heart.  She is in her 50's and is overweight.  She also has diabetes,and suffers from breathing problems.  My guestion is how serious is this, and is it treatable?  Can you give me some feedback, and some internet sights on this subject that will help us better understand?

[Cleveland Clinic, MD]

Dear Laverne,

Most likely the heart enlargenent is due to the aortic valve problem.  He probably will need to have surgery at some point.  The timing of surgery will depend on many things including his test results and how he feels.  Feel free to post follow-up questions here.