i have an enlargedleft atrium what does this meen?

[sarah1234cats]

i had an ecg on monday 14th jan after havin pains in my neck and my left arm felt numb  after havin my blood pressure checked it was 130 high is all i know so i had this ecg and i was told my left atrium is enlarged i dont understand what this means the doctor as arranged for a scan on my kidneys to be done and a full blood count on friday this week  what does all this mean i am 34 and have smoked but stopped 17 weeks ago and have put a lil bit of weight on   does this mean i have diseseasd heart?

[sarah1234cats]

hi jon thankyou for your response  ya have explained more to me than my doc did hun  thanku i understand better now  also my kidney scan is on monday so will know mre then thanx hun sarah xx

[erijon]

An EKG is not a very reliable way to find an enlarged left atrium, usually that is done with an echo and even that is not totally accurate. An echo takes a picture or a "slice" of each chamber for measurement. If the heart is shifted at all on it's normal axis it would get an inaccurate reading. For instance, think of a banana, if you cut it at a 90 degree angle, the cut end would be smaller than if you had cut it at a 45 degree angle. I had the same finding on my echo in August and I asked my cardiologist if this meant my heart was not structurally normal and she said that it was indeed normal. The only accurate way to measure an atrium size is to measure the volume, that's not done very often. An enlarged atrium is a symptom of another condition, usually high blood presure.

Good Luck,

Jon