borderline leaks

[crazydoolie]

Hi: I am a 63 yr.old female, I had open heart surgery a yr. ago 12/1/09  I just had an echocardiagram done and received a letter from my doctor; It says: I reviewed your echocardiagram. You have a good heart function, (that's good) normal chamber dimensions and no evidence of any fluid around the heart (again that's good) this is what concerns me: the tricuspid and pilmonic valves are borderline, leaky but they appear to be working fine. Pulmonary artery pressure is slightly elevated at 40 mmHg and the mitral valve again has borderline amounts of leakiness.

My question is these borderline situations is this something that I have to be concerned about and will it become serious espicially since I have already had one open heart surgery.
thank you for your help;
crazydoolie (thats my african greys name lol)

[kenkeith]

Mild, trivial, are adjectives for the degree of valve leakage, and it is not considered medically significant.  The condition often does not progress nor cause symptoms.  Borderline probably means it is not clearly observed whether or not there is leakage...it is apparent it is not an medical issue.

The pulmonary artery pressure represents the amount of resistance the right ventricle pumps against.  More resistance the higher the higer the pressure. Resistance can be narrowing of the pulmonary vessel, thrombosis (blood clots).  High PH (systolic) can be  associated with age, body size, gender, etc.wall thickness, and ejection fraction.  The 40 mm Hg is the upper limit of the reference range for normal.

Hope this helps, and if you have any followup questions you are welcome to respond.  Thanks for the question, take care.