Left side of heart about the same, right side back to normal? Other things..

[sue]

My husband was diagnosed in January with IDCM with a bit of pulmonary edema.  His EF was about 30%.  He was put on 25mg Spironolactone once a day, 40mg Zestril once a day, and 20 mg furosemide once a day, but after a month was able to stop Furosemide, and began building his way up to the max on coreg without any side effects.  Just after about a week and a half, of meds before the Coreg he felt normal.  My husband is 31 and pretty active.  When returned for a repeat ecko, after about three months, (he hasn't had a cath or MUGA as of yet) the doctor said that the right side of his heart was back to normal but said that the left was about the same.  My questions are, does this happen often where one side of the heart goes back to normal and one doesn't?  I also have read some of the statistics that are very scary.  When refer to statistics for Conjestive heart failure, does that mean they are referring to people who don't improve with meds and stay in heartfailure or is the cardiomyopathy and chf all the same?  I also have read that the so called window of oppertunity for recovery is about a year, but is it possible that people can recover after that?  My husband has no symptoms since first diagnosed, he has no heart beat problems or any other, just the DCM.  His doctor says he doesn't have CHF ( I asked after getting confused reading imfo on enternet and the pulmonary edema).  I also was wondering if because the right side went back to normal, does that give him a better chance at the left returning to normal?  Could this be a characteristic of a viral DCM?  And one more question, I have heard that some people with this condition may never need a transplant and possibly live a normal lifspan, is this true and does it apply to DCM as well?  Thank you for your time and I am sorry for the length!

[joanna hanna]

i know this is a different situation but my daughter at 6 mo had dialated cardiomyopathy, and enlargement of her left and right ventricules plus a sever left valume over load, and left ventriculare dysfuntion(heart failure).  once they identified her heart defet and corrected it the dialation diapeared and her heart function got back to normal.  if they can find a cause for the dialation they can treat it and the cardiomyopathy may resolve woith time as it did in my daughter.  she ias know 28 mo wih normal heart function and no sigh of dialation, or no heart failure so keep the faith and be patient it takes time.   good luck

[CCF CARDIO MD JMF]

Right sided heart failure can often improve and respond to diuretics and medication. With appropriate , aggressive care, people with cardiomyopathy may lead a relatively normal life.  However, this condition may progress. I would consider a more extensive evaluation of your husbands condition including full right and left heart catheterizations to fully characterize his heart failure .  You may wish to contact one of the heart failure specialists at CCF directly via our numbers listed in this site.