My heart is barfing less!

[ponygirlmom]

A few people asked me to post the results of my angiogram.

Oops! It's not an "angiogram"; it's a "Selective Coronary Angiography with an Aortogram, Left-Heart Catheterization and Left Ventriculogram." Sound v. more impressive, no?

Anyway, here are the results that I find interesting:

1. They call my aortic regurgitation "mild to moderate." That's downgraded from "moderate." Woo Hoo! Less heart barf!

2. My left anterior descending artery is "tortuous through its course." I have no idea what this means, but it certainly sounds like an Extreme Sport for blood.

And that's it for interesting results. The rest are boring and expected.

1. "No significant coronary artery disease." (Which makes me wonder, what do they mean by "significiant"? Is there some kind of disease, like a really bad party for socially-awkward microbes?)

2. Aortic pressure: 100/61; mean pressure 80mmHg; heart rate 68bpm; left ventricular pressure 116/0; left ventricular end-diastolic pressure 13mmHg.

I have no idea what the above means. I hope it's interesting to somebody.

 

[briansmom]

Do you have Marfan or Ehlers Danlos? I believe the tortuous artery is a symptom of that.
I don't remember your situation. Do you have a bicuspid valve and/or aneurysm?

 

[Superbob]

"Tortuous" course -- why do medical wizards use words like this?

Here is one of many articles indicating the "tortuous" route of blood through the heart is not all that abnormal:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9496460

Now, I have no idea why they used the "tortuous" terminology in your particular report. I would ask about it. Request an English language translation.

What I want to know is why the medical community pursues such a tortuous path through the English language.

 

[ponygirlmom]

Do you have Marfan or Ehlers Danlos? I believe the tortuous artery is a symptom of that.
I don't remember your situation. Do you have a bicuspid valve and/or aneurysm?

Yes, I have Marfan's, a bicuspid valve and an aneurysm. (I even put my valve and aneurysm in my sig, after everyone kept saying, "Put it in your sig!" I'd better put Marfan's in there, too.)

 

[aussigal]

I must say I love your fairy avatar, she is gorgeous....

I recall my surgeon telling me that one of the difficulties he had with me was my arteries and veins were all over the place and not where they usually are. It seems that I am not the only one who is "wired" uniquely. I believe it has something to do with our connective tissue disorder.