EKG shows abnormal and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

[dixie2001]

My 9 year old daughter was complaining of some chest pain and shortness of breath following some strenuous exercies over the summer and my wife and I decided to have her checked out. She had a Chest X-Ray and an EKG. The chest X-Ray was normal, however, the EKG came back as abnormal and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy was written on the scan. We are meeting with a Cardiac specialist on Monday, however, we are freaking out and I was wondering if you could help shed some light on what may be causing the LVH. I have been looking on the internet and frankly I am currently more confused and scared than ever.


Thanks,

Jim

[twillier]

My son is also 9 and had dental surgery. During recovery they noticed an irregular heart beat. Since then we have visited a pediatric cardiologist and have gone through the EKG and Echo. His advice after finding that my son has a thickening of the muscle in the left ventricle was to stop competive sports (and at the beggining of hockey season). I too am freaked out by the information on the internet. I feel more confused than ever.  We will have to return to the specialist for a stress test and he must also wear a heart holster for 24 hours. The cardiologist also wants to perform an echo on my spouse and I.  I really wish doctors would share more information and precautions.

[Michael J. McWilliams, M.D.]

The best advice I can offer is to stop reading the internet, it will only scare you.  The EKG definition for LVH may not apply to children unless the EKG machine parameters were changed to the pediatric standard.  The requirements for LVH change over time and it is ok for children to have higher voltage on their EKG than adults.

The cardiologist will likely want to check a echocardiogram to measure the wall thickness -- this is a painless test that uses ultrasound waves to image the heart.  If it is clearly normal for someone her age, he may not want to do any tests at all.

I don't think you need to worry.  Just wait to hear what a specialist has to say, the internet will only confuse and scare you.

I hope this helps.