What about your children?

[CathyK.]

Just wondering if any of you have ever been told that your kids need to be checked for heart problems and if so, at what age? One Dr. that did a physical for one of my sons told him to have a good heart work-up by age 20. He is now 18. That was the only Dr. that ever mentioned my children getting checked out.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Can't hurt. At best...you are protecting them against endocarditis in the event there is deficiency.

 

[Mike C]

you have a bav, your children should be checked for it.

mostly for the possibility of an aortic anerysm.

my children are young and will be checked at some pint. i would ahve your 18 checked by an echo soon.

bav is beleived to be genetic, more common in males

although rare so most likely they are fine but you need to make sure

 

[CathyK.]

Thanks mike and gina! I kinda figured since it was a congenital condition that my offspring should probably be checked but I am surprised my Card hasn't mentioned it.

 

[Marguerite53]

There has been LOTS of discussion about the possibility of passing these defects on to your children. There are several university studies in motion as we write. We will be learning more and more as time goes on.

In the meantime, please do a search, here. You can read a lot. Try heritability of bav, and then keep following those threads.

Marguerite

 

[aussigal]

MY Cardio didnt mention checking our 3 boys either. I had read on the BAV website how heritable this (BAV) is and decided I would get the kids tested. 2 of our 3 sons do have a BAV and the other one looks to have a mild leaking of his Mitral & Tricuspid valves. I wouldnt take "NO" for an answer. My youngest has a dilated Aorta already.

As I have said in other threads on this subject, none of our boys have made any lifestyle changes since knowing this and I rest much easier now that we know. I was previously feeling guilty for not knowing it was heritable and then not having had the boys scanned, all the "what-if's" that kept goingthru my mind...There is a story posted here somewhere about a young boy (10yrs) in the UK who actually died because he was undiagnosed, now that is sad.

 

[Magic8Ball]

Boy my learning curve over the past week has been steep, i believed up until this point i had a 'freak condition' although at the birth of my two son's i did ask the person doing the check to have a listen particuarly for heart murmurs and they said both sons were clear but to my knowledge my brother has never been checked nor have any cousins etc.

I'm beginning to question the level of care i received in the UK as i had no knowlege of aortic problems associated with my bicuspid valve nor the implications of over stressing the heart with sports etc...perhaps if i'd known that i wouldn't have spent the last 3 years doing martial arts and could have possibly lasted another 3 years or so without surgery, who knows.

But to come back off my tangent, i will be getting the kids properly checked as soon as i have recovered from my surgery and also be suggesting that my brother has a check. It will also be something i pass onto my sons to have their children checked....

 

[sylviayasgur]

hi cathy,
no one had told me to do so, but i took it upon myself after reading posts here, to have both our girls checked out by our cardio. both were fine, but the youngest had to be further checked to rule out coarctation of the aorta. her "pulse sequence" was characteristic of it, but she is a dancer and the fact that she dances without her legs ever giving in was not. so we had her checked and all is fine_ thank God!
they were both in their late teens when this was done.

i felt it was safer to be sure and know. it did, however, upset and terrify the girls tremendously, especially after having seen joey go through the surgery.
worth it though in the end.
all the best,
sylvia

 

[pipersmith]

My son has an appt. for an ECHO tomorrow. I have four children. The pedicatric cardiologist said that I should mention the history of valve problems at their next check-up so that their doctor can pay particular attention to certain things. We decided to do the full work up on my 11 year old because he takes Adderall. Adderall has caused death in a small number of kids - who were unaware of some structural congenital heart defects. So far everything looks great, but he wanted to do an ECHO to make sure.
The cardio felt that a full work-up for each kiddo was unnecessary unless there were another indication (murmur).

 

[marky]

My kids are checked periodically for Prolong QT syndrom which is another heart problem that I have.. it is the cause of sudden death in many athletes etc.

I also have a defibrillator for that..my two oldest kids have it..and one has a pacemaker the other controls it with Inderal LA

My youngest 2 are going for screenings next week, I am also going to request an echo to rule out MVP

 

[Marguerite53]

Hi again. Was in a hurry yesterday, but wanted to keep this thread "on top" so Tonia would see it!!

My kids are 19, 22, 24. The two older ones, sons, have shown no signs of any physical inconsistency. The youngest, our daughter is the athlete and she had had some episodes of breathlessness and swooniness during tournaments. I paid to have an echo done on her as no doctor would stand behind my concern (thereby not able to get insurance to cover it). She came back with mild AI. My cardiologist read the report, gratis (okay, that was nice) and said premedicate her. Our GP said, not enough going on there, don't bother. Great! I've let it go. We've attributed those non-recurring episodes to low blood sugar and new hormones and she's been a-okay since. Her aortic valve is normal, no BAV, just leaking abit.

Thanks to someone here on the forum (KarenL?) I found a university study at UWashington (in Seattle) and was able to get an echo done on both of my boys for free. The middle one, tall and lanky (turns sideways and disappears....quite underweight) turned out to have mitral valve prolapse. I made him take antibiotics at his last dentist visit even though we have no measurements (just a quick note from the research cardiologist as to the nature of his echo) as our GP concurred, it wouldn't hurt (as he mentioned, well, look, he fits the body type) again . different GP for the boys. Our oldest son has somewhat of an enlarged heart, or what they call Athlete's heart. He works out all the time, but isn't what I'd call a body builder, so I'm quite puzzled about that. Recently, a physical therapist at my cardiac rehab mentioned that a squishy ball for hand exercises which was in the shape of a human heart, was the same size as her heart. Hunh? She said that your fist is the size of your heart. Well, my son has Abe Lincoln hands, so I figure that may be part of it. Anyone ever hear of that?

Anyway, the kids know to always have a doctor, any doctor who sees them for anything, listen very very carefully to their heart. At the first detection of a murmur, we'll get the boys properly echoed. For now, I'm just waiting for the information to be more clear (beyond this particular research cardiologists notion that 6% or so of those with BAV have it in their families).

Let us know what you find out!

Marguerite

 

[CathyK.]

Thanks to all of you. It is such a blessing to have you all here to bounce things off of. Since all 3 of my boys are in their teens and very active in sports and one is in school to become a pilot, I think they should have a heart work-up. Will let you all know what the tests show. Thanks for all the good info and links.

 

[CathyK.]

Marguerite - I have heard that your heart size is about the size of your fist. I am going to do some research on this heredity thing. Let's see if I find out anything new. Thanks!

 

[Mary]

Three of our five children have had echos to check for a BAV. Our youngest son, at the age of 18, was found to have one.

 

[francie12]

Coincidence for me to find this thread... My husband and younger son just went today, at the advice of my older son's pediatric geneticist, to have echos to screen for BAV and dilated aortas. I'm happy to say that they are both sporting Mercedes-Benz, tricuspid AV's and normal sized aortas. Me too--had a workup a year ago for rampant PVC's--everything benign. So Matt is the unique one in the family! I'm very glad to put the concern in the back of my mind--especially about 54 yr old dad--to rest. Insurance covers it now that it's ordered by the peds geneticist. Whew!

 

[KAJ]

So far, three of our four children have been tested none of them have BAV or aneurysm. We are cautiously optimistic.However, given my past history for BAV and severe Pectus (chest deformity), two weeks ago a geneticist recommended our oldest daugther (11) be tested for possible connetective tissue disease (including Marfans). If she has it, all of all our children will be tested on a regular basis.

Karl