Well at least your doctor has made the diagnosis, mild secondary PH from smoking.
Smoking damages small blood vessels in the lungs, making it harder for the blood to flow through the lungs. Therefore the heart pumps with more force and the pulmonary pressure rises
Lung emphysema and chronic bronchitis--strongly linked to cigarette smoking and together known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are among the more common causes of SPH.
I can understand that you are not happy to wait so long. On the other hand, as smoking seems to be the cause of this, there is no need to fear for sudden death anymore.
It would be great if you could quit smoking to prevent the SPH from progressing.
Just said there was a finding of 31mm and that he thinks its from vessels in lungs narrowing due to fact I'm a smoker so to quit smoking I also am a very active person. With excersise and not overweight. A repeat in echo in a year or two . Tho I'm not happy with waiting ... Just received my mom echo and her pulmonary pressure at 34.5 tho she 28 year old than me . I'm am freaking because of my sister sudden cardiac at 47 .... She was short of breath on exertion and she tho. She was out of. Shape. From what we can tell ... They concluded left ventricle hydrothrophy w some narrowing of small vessel. She was overweight and a non excersier . And that why I'm so concerned
It is a fact that there are quite some variations in results from different technicians. That, in combination with the perhaps not so perfect image quality could lead to overestimation of the pulmonary pressure.
My right atrium went from mildly dilated to severely dilated to mildly dilated again in successive echo's.
Therefore I think a repeat echo or other examination to confirm or invalidate the earlier findings is important. Next steps depend on diagnosis, so it is important that the diagnosis is reliable.
What did your cardiologist say about the echo results?
Do you think a repeat echo in 6 months would be helpful? Do you think it also could be from a different techician do test? I know of tee echo tho very hard to get approval for those procedures.
31mm is indeed a bit above normal. I do not know if your doctor will order another test to confirm it.
Given the fact that they did not get a good view of your pulmonary valve, could indicate the necessity of a TEE echo to get more reliable results.
When you are diagnosed to have a too high pulmonary pressure, further testing is necessary, to try to find a cause for it.
Testing might include blood analysis, apnea testing and pulmonary (lung) testing.
It's is measured at 31mm . The 1st I had any reading on pulmonary systolic pressure . They say normal it 20-25 mm
Hi Victoria2122,
let me start by saying that I would not be overly worried about the regurgitation of the heart valves. Trace and mild are normally nothing to worry about.
What do you mean by an increase in pulmonary pressure? Is it now measured 31mm or is it increased by 31mm?