Enlarged heart

[Trevor86]

A recent Xray showed my heart to be outside normal limits this has occured in the time since my last Xray 12 months ago. I have been on courses of prendisone for a repetitive chest infection for the past 12 months and I am still using a steroid inhaler. I am also on sinemet 500 for my Parkinsons condition. What could be the cause of the sudden increase in heart size. I am 72 years young.

[Trevor86]

Thank you for your response to my query, I visited my GP yesterday and he recomends an ECG to start with my resting BP is 125/80 which is not to bad fro someone of my age.
Thank you once again,
Regards, Trevor86

[kenkeith]

An enlarged heart isn't a condition in itself, but a symptom of an underlying problem that is causing the heart to work harder than normal. The range of underlying problems falls generally into two main categories - pathological (linked to actual disease of the heart muscle disease) and physiological (linked to other causes which are overworking the heart muscle, such as high blood pressure or thyroid diseases). In some cases, an enlarged heart is asymptomatic (has no symptoms).