Follow up to post of May 5, 2006, abnormal ecg and lvh

[Tessa10]

I posted in May and said that I had a routine ECG for a physical and it came back very abnormal, it was repeated and it was the same. I have had no chest pain, no shortness of breath, BP 108/70 and normal cholesterol. I am a woman, 52, healthy, fit, active and former light smoker. I went for an echocardiogram and it came back normal. The cardiologist says my ECG says I have Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, but is perplexed because I have no symptoms.  All the repeated ECGs show severe LVH and my cholerstreol and BP are always normal. In my earlier post you said that there can be false positives, I am not thin but not fat.  Can there be repeated false positives?

My brother at age 56 has had a stint inserted (sorry that is all I know) but that is all the heart problems in the family. He is healthy and otherwise has no further problems.

The cardiologist is sending me for a radioisotopes stress test next month and said if it comes back normal we will ignore the strange ecg. Do you think there are more tests that should be done?

Obviously whatever problem I have now has recently occured because I have had normal ecgs in the past.


How can this all be? I am quite worried.
Thank you,
Tessa10

[CCF-M.D.-MJM]

Hi Tessa,

Can there be repeated false positives?

you would expect the ecg's to look the same every time unless one of the leads was misplaced.

Do you think there are more tests that should be done?

I don't think so.  If your echo does not show LVH and you have a good exercise tolerance, that should be fine.  I wold consider an exercise echocardiogram to look at the pressures in your heart during exertion.

If these tests are all normal and you don't have symptoms, I wouldn't pursue it any further.

Thanks for posting.

[lbcalistyle]

I have a Bicuspid Aortic Valve with Regurg with murmur and high blood pressure question im a 21 male and was a user of steroids for bout a yr i was wondering if the drugs can make the condition worse. my cardiologist has said my heart has enlarged but can it be really bad for me please let me know ur input im young and concerned.