tricuspid leakage

[concerned]

I am 30 year old female who is concerned about tricuspid leakage.I had ASD
repair 20 years ago and now found out that I have a small mitrial valve leak in which I know its ok and a tricuspid valve leak of 3+. About 2 years ago the leak of the tricuspid valve was a 1+ and now its a 3+. What does these number means and can it go from a 1+ to a 3+ within 2 years? Can it be a mistake? I think I do have some symptoms but not sure if they are: shortness of breath going up the stairs,fatigue,feeling a weird heart beat? They think shortness of breath could be asthma but never have a asthma attack and will treat it like if it was asthma, can this be from the heart or just asthma? I really do not think its asthma. I just starting seeing another pcp because my old one never detected the leak and my new pcp detected leak and my cardiologist knew that there was a leak before and did not mention to me about it and still did not mention that there is a 3+ leak now. I also changed him too because my new pcp told me to change. Next week I will see a new cardiologist. I just want to know where I will be heading,will it be medication,a close watch or surgery? thanks concerned

 

[tobagotwo]

It would be hard to guess appropriately where you're heading, exactly. I would strongly suspect that the shortness of breath and the palpitations are heart-related, and associated with the tricuspid valve leakage (aka regurgitation or insufficiency). I doubt you've suddenly come down with asthma for the doctor's convenience.

I suspect that for whatever reasons, your cardiologist did not consider you a candidate for surgery, and thus did not report to you what he had found, which is a cardinal sin to most of us here.

You don't mention the condition of your pulmonary valve, and whether you have heart enlargement. It's understandable if you didn't get that information, or if it wasn't offered. Hearing that one has sprung a leak in one's central plumbing is a difficult thing to take in all at once. It's a bad time to try to think of useful questions.

One thing you should do is to get all of your medical records from your previous physicians. They are required to provide it to you by law. They are allowed to charge a small fee, but frequently don't.

You sound like you are considering whether it's time to know more about your health, and leave less of it to mystery. This is a good place to start.

Best wishes,

 

[Georgia]

Yup, I developed "asthma" also - that pcp is history. Unfortunately, I didn't know to question him and had never heard of cardiac asthma at that time. I had a miserable mitral valve that had damaged the tricuspid.

It sure sounds like your symptoms are cardiac. Good luck; let us know what the cardiologist has to say.

Ditto getting all your records together. The sooner the better.

 

[Mb]

Welcome:

My husband had two valves replaced in 2001. Aortic and mitral, St. Jude valves. Post surgery, his tricuspid valve leakage showed up initially as moderate, and then quickly progressed to severe. He also has chronic a-fib. You can imagine our dismay to find out he now had a third bad valve.

He has been managed for over four years now with medications. It is VERY important for him to be "dry", and takes 120mg of lasix daily, with a kicker added in once in awhile, when he retains too much fluid. This shows up in his legs/ankles, and stomach area. Due to the a-fib, he has a enlarged atria, and his right ventricle is enlarged.

Generally speaking, there is no direct consensus as to when is the correct time to repair or replace the tricuspid valve....unlike the aortic and mitral valves. If you are having valve surgery for the aortic or mitral, then again, generally they repair/repalce the tricuspid valve when they are doing those valves.

The left side of the heart is the "working" side, and the right side is more passive, so the effect on cardiac output is not as significant with the tricuspid valve leaking.

Many, many people are managed for years on medication, along with being vigilant about fluid retention.

I think you are heading in the right direction, changing cardiologists and PCP's. You have the right, and should know, about your condition. How can you manage your health if you don't know????

I added the above just for information.....and so that you might not be as scared. There is a lot of information out there on the highway!!

Marybeth

 

[concerned]

tricuspid valve

tricuspid valve

I just got my medical records in the mail from my old cardiologist the only thing is he did not send me the recent echo.I believe that he still did not do the report because my primary md did not recieve it still.The only report she recieve was a stat fax stating that the mitrial valve was leaking trivial and the tricuspid was a 3+.She is very upset about this because he had almost 3 weeks to do the report. So now I am just waiting to see my new cardiologist in which I have an appointment on Thurs 1/19/06. It was a fast appointment due to my history and I need clearance for intestinal surgery also. If the doctor does not have the report by Monday I just have to get another echo with the new doctor. Thanks for the replies its really helped!I will keep you guys posted!

 

[concerned]

tricuspid leakage

Well today was the day I saw the new doctor he was very good.He thinks that the tricuspid leakage was caused by the picc line I had in September 2005. That's why it went from a 1+ to a 3+. The shortness of breath is caused by the heart. It will also go away with time if leakage improve.To be on the safe side he order a stress test within this coming week. So there is a possibilities that this would go away with time and just that the picc line caused it to leak more. I am just hoping that is true but won't know until the stress test. He will keep monitoring more frequent until the leakage improve then monitoring me yearly. If this does improve then the picc line was the cause of everything. Keep you posted when I hear more about the results of the stress test, if it caused by the picc line or caused by something else.

 

[MikeHeim]

Concerned or anyone else:

In an effort to understand other people's issues besides my own, I have a question. In Concerned's first post, he asked was the +1 and +3 numbers mean. Could someone clarify this for me? I never heard numbers like this when my Mitral Valve leakage was being diagnosed. Thanks!