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What does that mean

My sister 47 was told be her doc. that her heart muscle is damaged. What does that mean? She has high blood preasure but never smoked or drank.
Grace
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976897 tn?1379167602
First of all, how can a doctor simply tell someone that they have damaged heart muscle
unless the appropriate tests have been performed? this is the first question which enters
my mind. Is the Doctor psychic or have x-ray vision?
So, what tests were performed to detemine this? It MUST have been an echo scan
(which does not always see heart damage) or a nuclear scan.

Helpful - 0
328381 tn?1269364102
you need to quit putting people down.while your knowledge is extensive you dont know it all. unless your a heart dr and if you were you wouldnt act so harsh to someones comment
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328381 tn?1269364102
the damage could of came from blocked artieries causing a silent heart attack which would also cause heart muscle damage that happened to me and now i have 9 stents. a echo is also a test that would be done too.
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367994 tn?1304953593
cblmn, an interventional procedure (cath) is NOT the appropriate test!  Are you serious?!:)

Grace, if you sister has heart muscle damage, the appropriate test would be an echocardiogram.  If there is heart muscle damage, there will be hypokinesis or akinesis (meaning there is heart wall movement impairment) or no heart wall movement impairment, and if the heart tissue damage is slight, severe or not at all. If there is an impairment, it would/could effect the contractility of the left ventricle and reduce the cardiac output.  That is what it means.  What brought your doctor to the conclusion of heart muscle damage?  If it was an EKG, it could very well be a false positive...it has about a 40% sensitivity rating, and other bign causes that is not medically significant can be the cause!

Also, an echo will determine if the heart is structually normal in size and whether the heart walls and chambers (inside) of are normal.  And the echo will observe the function and structure of the heart valves, and ruloe that out as a cause.  

Before there can be any conclusive evaluation, the underlying cause needs to be determine.  If high blood pressure has not been under control for a long period of time, the high resistance of the vessels stresses the heart and the workload causes the left ventricle to enlarge.  An enlarged ventricle can/will reduce contractility, and the lack in cardiac output can damage he heart cells.
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328381 tn?1269364102
i do know that if you have had a heart attack you get heart muscle damage the damage comes from blocked artieries that feed blood to your heart it doesnt just pick smokers or drinkers although smoking can contribute to it she should have a heart cath to check her artieries
Helpful - 0
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