Understanding Echo results

[Amy4062]

My problems started 2015 When I fell and broke my tibula. And it eventually had to have surgery and plate and screws put in. I have always been strong healthy person. So I noticed before I had surgery that I kept having a pain in the calf of my leg and I thought well its just where I broke my leg and maybe its putting pressure pulling on the muscle. I told all Drs but no one was concerned. So later on I noticed I was getting weaker ,short of breath when standing a max of 5 minutes and break out in cold sweat and felt I was going to pass out. People would talk to me and I could not hear them but as soon as I would sit down and rest the symptoms would go away. I was so weak it was a taxing effort to take a bath my daughter would have to help me. So eventually they listened after I lived this way for 2 months I did in deed have a dvt (blood clot) in my leg. And several small pe ( blood clots in lungs) in both lungs throughout. So next few yrs the symptoms still come back off and on. So I recently had a echo. Heart Dr said it was normal and I was reading on my report that ejection fraction was 55% or higher and I understand that to be normal but it also said my mitral and tricuspid valves have regurgitation and a dilated IVC. I don't understand. Can someone explain this to me is this normal?

[djd1990]

Obviously the key for you will be determining if your blood clotting issues are the result of a heart issue, a vascular issue, or something else. There are ways of estimating pressures via Doppler echo indices, although a catherization would provide more definitive results. Nothing you've mentioned about the results of your echo is unusual, nor would it be reflective of an intrinsic cardiac issue causing your clots. Your doctors will simply have to continue to analyze and evaluate further test results to eventually figure out if you have some sort of peripheral vascular disorder or if there is indeed something more central such as severe pulmonary hypertension or a million other things causing these issues. In the meantime, it's just key that you follow their advice in terms of restrictions, medications, and other treatments to prevent the formation of further issues and/or complications from those embolisms and clots that do exist.

[Amy4062]

Yes. The blood clots that i got was decided that it was provoked because i broke my leg. It just concerns me cause I feel ive never got back to where I was before the clots. Its been 2yrs and i still get shortness of breath and pain when breathing in. I can just go from sitting to standing And my heart rate soars like 130, cold clammy sweat.

[Amy4062]

Since it said that I had dilated inferior vena cava I wonder if that suggests increased pressure within the arteries which suggests pulmonary hypertension which would be caused from the blood clots?

[cardiophobiac]

mitral regurgitation at least, is quite common. sometimes in trace amounts others on moderate amounts. theres no telling if you have had this the majority of your life if you didn't ever have an echo scan before all this happened.

[Occupant]

I am surprised that they are so cavalier about that. My wife had the same symptoms and the family doctor said, take her to the ER right away, which I did. They found two blood clots in her lung and put her on Coumadin. They observed her for several days until her INR had stabilized. After several months she is still on it - at least until they do another scan several months from now. The conclusion was, since she had complained about her left leg previously, that the bloods had  traveled to her lungs. The blood clot in her leg is gone now.