Brief Answer: Hi, How can we help you? Detailed Answer: Mitral regurgitation is a problem of the heart in which the mitral valve does not close properly when the heart pumps out blood. It is the abnormal leaking of blood from the left ventricle (the lower chamber), back into the left atrium (the upper chamber), when the left ventricle contracts. It is the most common form of valvular heart disease. In many women, you will go your whole life with this issue and you will never notice it. In some, the problem will only be diagnosed at the time of pregnancy. The most important thing to ascertain is what symptoms you are having and are they related to the Valve issue. If you have no symptoms, then this is a trivial MR (Mitral Regurgitation) and nothing needs to be done. If you have significant symptoms, then maybe surgery needs to be done to replace the valve. So Can you help me with that please? What made you get the Echos and the Holter monitor testing? That way I can have a full discussion with you on this and we can decide what needs to be done next together. Feel free to follow-up whenever you like. Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic.com

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Brief Answer: Stress and arrythmias Detailed Answer: Hi! Thanks for following-up! I'm glad you are getting the appropriate investigations done to get to the bottom of this. I see that SOME of the symptoms that you've mentioned here can be ascribed to the MR. But not all of them and are also very likely to be caused by other problems like Coronary Artery Disease and actually, extreme Anxiety. Considering that the MR is Mild . Lets wait until you have the results of the stress test before we go further with the heart. In the meantime? How are you managing your anxiety and stress? These things are killers! There are pharmacological ways of managing anxiety (Xanax, Bupropion etc) and there are non-pharma ways (biofeedback, deep breathing exercises, meditation and Yoga). Believe it or not, the non pharamcological methods work really really well when they are done RIGHT and done REGULARLY. Is this something that you might think of looking into? I say this because, we can do all kinds of things to your hert.. replace valves, put stents.. darn it, we can take the old ticker out and put a new one in.. But if your stress isn't managed.. nothing will work in the end. So lets have a full discussion on whats stressing you out and how you are coping. If you feel uncomfortable with me, you could always seek out a good therapist in your area and speak one on one. Thanks for the folllow-up. Take care.

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Brief Answer: Well, you can hit 80 with this report Detailed Answer: Hey, relax! That echo is pretty darn good. Don't worry about the tests. Mild MR and the like are seen in millions of people and they don't even notice it. It's the miracle of modern science which picks up on these things. Mild MR will not be what gets you. But the Anxiety is a different issue. Tell me. Has anyone ever thought about putting you on a low dose anti-anxiety medication? There are a few.. like Alprazolam (Xanax). this might give you a better quality of life overall. Also, I would like you to consider counseling. I'm not saying you have psychiatric issues or anything like that. What I AM saying is that a good counselor can teach you methods of managing your stress and controlling you anxiety. That would improve your quality of life greatly I think. Meditation and yoga are powerful tools you can use as well, they can help with anxiety and even lower your blood pressure. I have watched hypertensive patients give up on their meds (cause they don't need them anymore) after a few months of yoga training and regular exercise. I hope this helps. Take Care

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Brief Answer: extra heart beats and stress tests Detailed Answer: Hi there, thanks for following up, Extra heart beats are actually pretty common for alot of people, They happen due to very tiny changes in the concentrations of electrolytes in the muscles and can be ignored unless all of those extra beats start happening in a coordinated fashion. Then they are called an arrhythmia. Here they have specifically mentioned that there is no arrhythmia. So no worries there. A stress test is good for seeing how much blood is getting to your heart.. when it;s under stress.. When they make you jog on the treadmill they are watching the ECG and they are seeing if there are any changes which could show that not enough blood is getting to the heart. Lets wait till those results come in. I think it may be a good idea to seek counseling now like you had before. Times like this where there is alot of uncertainty and stress can precipitate panic and anxiety issues. A good therapist can hep you through it and minimize your need for pharmacological intervention (drugs). Echo's are generally pretty benign tests, but it's normal for the left rib to stick out more than the right one. The right rib is at a bit of an angle and fixed cause of the liver on the right side. While the left one floats a bit since there is not liver on that side. I wouldn't be concerned about that. If there is a visible bruise on your chest or near the rib cage, I would get it looked at, but for the life of me I can't see how an echo could be that violent unless the tech took the wand and started beating you with it :-) (just kidding, i'm sure they didn't do that). Lets see how the Stress test turns out then we can plan our next move. Take Care.

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