Moderate Tricuspid Reguratation

[cookienkikin]

I'm a 21 yrd old male. I've been having chest pain for about a year now, the pain is right over my heart area, and is like a tickling sensation or like squeezing.  I had to echo's one a year ago which was perfect, and then one in jan2007, here are the results from the most recent. What does it all mean? Is it really bad? I also went to my family doc yesterday, and she listened to my heart and said she could not hear a murmur.
                           (Normals)
IVSd- 0.94 cm      (0.7-1.1 cm)
LVPWd-1.02cm   (0.7-1.1 cm)
LVIDd-4.21 cm   (3.7-5.4 cm)
LVIDs-2.51 cm   (2.3-3.9 cm)
Ao Diam-3.11cm   (2.0-3.7 cm)
AV Cusp-2.47cm  (1.5-2.6 cm)
LA Diam-3.36cm  (1.9-4.0 cm)
RVIDd-1.53 cm   (0.7-2.5 cm)
Ef (Teich)-71% (45%-84%)
(Doppler Values)
(1.0-1.7 m/s)    Av Vmax-1.17 m/s
(0.6-1.3 m/s)    MV E Vel-0.75 m/s
(0.6-0.9 m/s)    PV Vmax-0.83 m/s
(0.3-0.7 m/s)    TV E Vel-0.55 m/s
RVSP-34.02 mmHg
Tech Comments:
There is a moderate amount of tricuspid regurgitation present.
Conclusion:
1. Normal LV chamber size, wall thickness, and systolic function, ejection fraction of 71%.
2. No aortic or mitral valve disease.
What does all that mean. Is there any other abnormalities than what is under the “Tech comments” about the moderate tricuspid regurgitation?  How severe is moderate tricuspid regurgitation, can it be corrected, is it causing the pain, can it get worse, what can I do, what should I do?

[Forum-M.D.-MJM]

Hello,
This is a normal echocardiogram by numbers.  Moderate tricuspid regurg requires no further treatment.  There is no need to correct moderate and usually even severe tricuspid regurg.  I do not think your heart is your problem.  The leaky tricuspid regurg could get worse, but it would not cause chest pains.  I would just focus on living healthy, not direct therapy is indicated.
Thanks for posting.

[cookienkikin]

what can i do to make it not get any more severe? if it does get severe can it be life threatening?  i often have like a sudden hard hearbeat/pulse in my throat/neck, like a skipped beat or a really hard beat immediately following a regular beat.  and i sometimes feel it in my chest and like a tightness in my chest.About 2 years ago I started having some chest pains and so I had an echo done, holter monitor, stress test, ekg’s, and blood work everything came back normal and the pain sub-sided about a month later, well recently about 6 months ago the pain came back and it’s still present and seems to be getting more frequent and slowly progressively worse.  The pain is in the middle of the left side of my chest and the center of my chest, it feels like its right over my heart, or in my heart.  Sometimes it will get tight in that area, and my back will also get really tight and start to hurt.  The pain is usually a dull constant pain and sometimes it will go away and come back with occasional quick sharp, squeezing pain.  I often get these feelings of my pulse in my neck/throat, one will just come really sudden and hard and then go back to normal, this happens throughout the day, kind of like my heart is skipping a beat or it has a beat immediately following another. A lot of times when I start to hurt I put my hand over my heart and I can feel it like pounding really hard but at a normal rate, it just feels like its beating really hard, like forceful beats, I guess you could say.  is this not a serious condition??  can it affect my everyday life? will i eventually need to have heart surgery? what could the pain be from that is over my heart?

[oneil420]

What you can do is all aboutyourlifestyle, first and most important exercise and be active,next diet and of course other factors you control smoking(anything) ,drinking, and just being proactive about your health in general, your next skip, lump in throat and hard beat after is classic PAc/pvc. If your concerned and i believe you are ask for a holter or event monitor to try and catch the rythm o on a tape. Pvcs are a huge problem on this forum but medical science claims that with a normal structured heart(free of disease) pvcs dont effect mortality but its worth talking to a dr about. I get hundreds a day. Also your mental health, do you have or get panic/anxiety attacks over your heart? If so welcome to the club, its almost impposible to tell what causes what the anxiety causing the pvcs or the pvcs causing the anxity but anxiety is a illness that can be eliminated. To sum this up the best thing you can do is discuss all your concerns with your doctor, strart writing things down you want to talk about (u will forget things to mention while at the office if you dont) be honest with him/her and try to figure out whats going on. If your doctor isnt being proactive ask for another or get a new office. Only you know how you feel and only you have anything to gain and everything to loose. dont be a hypocondriact but get your answers if for nothing else peace of mind or believe me your quality of life will suffer and its just not worth it. goodluck oneil420

[EchoTech]

moderate tricuspid regurgitation in itself is not a serious condition.  As far as getting valve surgery on the tricuspid valve, that would be fairly rare.  I do echos for a living and I've only seen 2 or possibly three times where the tricuspid valve was repired or replaced in an adult, and the facility I work in has a relatively high volume of procedures and heart surgeries.  
  Essentially the report says that you have a normal heart.  It could get more severe, but really there is nothing that you could do to prevent it.  It is also not a life threatening event if it does get severe.  It in all likelyhood will not affect your life in any meaningful way.    I would also predict that getting surgery to fix the tricuspid valve just won't happen.  Keep in mind that it could also stay stable (moderate) for decades to come, nobody really knows.

To sum it up:get on with your life and enjoy it.

Good night and good luck.