Trace-to-mild aortic regurgitation but feel symptoms. Am I going crazy?

[heartnotnow]

I am an otherwise totally healthy petite, thin 30 year old woman. I have had occasional pvcs since I was a child and was never concerned about them as I was told they were benign. Over Christmas dinner, I suddenly had a my first ever palpitation "attack." I was sitting down eating dinner where I felt my heart skipping beats, one after the other...for about 20-30 minutes. I got so scared I was going to die and had a major panic attack.

I went to bed that night and woke up feeling totally fine. However...that episode scared the crap out of me and I felt so anxious, jumpy and panicky the week after...I also noticed my heart doing weird things. When I'd get up after sitting down, I'd feel that my heart was drowning or slowing down or something. It was a very scary feeling.

After 2 weeks of back and forth, anxiety and strange heart palpitations I went to my GP. She did an EKG and said I was totally fine and told me to take xanax for my anxiety.

A week later, I wake up with my heart pounding and feeling naseous. I go back to my GP where I see another doctor, who does an EKG, blood oxygen test and told me I was fine too. He said he thinks I had an anxiety attack but referred me to a cardiologist as I told him my heart was going crazy.

I finally saw a cardiologist who did an EKG and a thorough Echo. She said my EKG was totally normal but my Echo showed trace-to-mild aortic leakage. She also says she is concerned that my aortic valve looks a bit big for my small size but its probably cholestrol deposits from my high cholestrol levels.

She told me to not worry, that this was an incidental finding and to go home and take some xanax. She told me to come back in 3 months for a quick follow up echo to double check.

Meanwhile...I have been losing my mind. I have been googling aortic regurgitation and it seems very serious. i am constantly panicked, have more pvcs than I have ever had before and feel nauseous and on edge. I also feel shortness of breath upon walking now and am so worried my heart is failing.

Are my symptoms really just anxiety? Or heart related?

[2210485]

Hmmm.. Well I think you should go back to your cardiologist and ask if you can just get a holter for the repeated palpitations.

As for the echo, it's kind of tough to make determinations without the hard numbers from the echo report regarding the AO.

Aortic regurg is the least common valve to have measurable or easily noticable Insufficiency. While it's true that all valves leak to some degree, an easily identifiable and distinct jet in the aorta is statistically most likely to be pathological.

However bear in mind thatbjust because something is technically a 'disease' or 'pathology' doesn't automatically mean its serious.

General Medical Cardiologists have their strengths and weaknesses. Echo is their bread and butter, so in this case I would absolutely trust her training and experience. Rather then moving on to other things she stayed put and has likely accumulated alot of valuable experience thats hard to find elsewhere.

Theres not really a higher authority, even within the field of cardiology that's "better qualified" to read these things then a seasoned outpatient medical cards doc. Maybe like.. A heart failure doc or a structural interventionalist? Cardiothoracic Surgeon maybe? The list is pretty small with regards to whos seen the most aortic valves.