Small aortic valve leak

[robert77]

I am a 30 y/o male in the fire service for 7 years.  Two years ago I started having intermittent (sp) anxiety attacks and the great symptoms that go with them. I'm 6'+ and 215 lbs.  I do work out on shift and recently had a bi-yearly physical with a echo-stress test. As I started the test the cardiologist told me he noticed a small aortic valve leak, but not to worry?  As the test went on, I felt fine but they noticed that my B/P was up to 200/120 and my HR was only up to 155.  I wanted to keep going but per b/p protocol he pulled me off and to the table for the after echo.  He said the heart is strong and pics were good.  The valve leak was not any worse and my B/P came down relatively quickly.  But my resting B/P which I take every shift day is less than 120/80.  My initial B/P at the echostress was 130/90.  He saw no blockage and said not to worry, but had no explaination for my as he called it "labile hypertension".  Should I be be concerned about having a stroke working at a fire or an aortic dissection? Or did my anxiousness act up when he told me about the leak?

[markmsn10]

Did he say how small the aortic leak was?   Keep in mind that many echos pick up trivial/mild leaks in valves which are completely normal and found in the general population.   Echo's are very sensitive via doppler and usually don't require followup providing diagnostic clues and causes of AR:  

No aortic regurgitation murmur
No bicuspid aortic valve
No enlarged aortic root (common cause of AR and many times idiopathic)
No abnormalities morphologically
No rheumatic fever (very rare these days)

Since I'm not sure I can post references from other sites; here's a portion of text from a good medical reference site.  

Please know I am not a doctor and my opinions are only to offer possible answers since your cardiologist didn't seem to think your regurgitation was a problem.

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In the US: With the advent of Doppler echocardiogram studies, many cases of mild AR have been identified in the general population. In some studies, up to 8.5% of women and 13% of men were found to have some degree of AR.