cardiomegaly

A friend of mine just passed at 35 yrs. old. the autopsy reported said that he was born with a bicuspid valve on right side of heart where he should have had a tricuspid, compounded with cardiomegaly due to sleep apnea. He was either asymptomatic or overlooked symptoms. My question is how long would it take for his heart to enlarge twice the size with these conditions? He did wear a By-pap at night and saw a dr regularly. had no h/o htn but death certificate states due to untreated htn over several years. He was maybe 10 lbs overweight and didn't smoke.

[kenkeith]

It is difficult to say, but usually cardiomegaly is a slow process and related symptoms would be a progression of shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle fatique, etc.  The symptoms would be the result of poor heart contractions of an enlarged heart causing  poor circulation of blood/oxygen.

Many people have a congenital valve abnormality that you describe and may not ever have any problems.  If the valve failed severly by a rupture, etc. the results can be as you describe.  Hypertension is usually not life threatening