Echocardiogram Results

[Boymum12345]

I’m just looking for some reassurance here. I had a 48 holter monitor and an echocardiogram in May 2023, I’ve had these before due to family history, never any issues. I never heard back from these and was told no news was good news.

I then received a letter through to go for another echo in May 2024 which was a surprise to me. I went, just assumed this was a routine check up as there’s heart problems in my family.

I went for my scan and I got a letter a few weeks later saying: your scan was unchanged from the one last year. The heart muscle function is not obviously impaired but it’s not quite as good as what I’d expect to see in someone of your age. I think it would be useful to send you for a cardiac MRI to look at the heart function through a different type of scan to decide whether or not we think there are any significant problems.

I haven’t got the appointment yet, they said it will come in the post. It’s been a whole year since my last scan, nothing has changed according to the letter, I never even heard back from my last scan, but now they want to do a cardiac MRI.

Does this sound like they’re just being over cautious? Has anyone had anything similar?

I have bad anxiety at the best of times and I’ve not been able to relax since getting this, I’m so confused

Any reassurance would be great

[Chinkoflight]

Hi, investigative and preventative care protocols are changing all the time and it's excellent that you have access to a cardiac MRI which is the gold standard assessment tool. If it detects some issues you will be glad you know I'm sure, if it finds everything is normal for age etc you should also be glad to know. I've had a difficult year starting with an out of the blue collapse which was triggered by a tachycardia. The treatment outcome was clear, the fitting of an ICD device. But this didn't give any indication of cause and angiogram and echocardiogram were clear. I had to push very hard to investigate further not least because as a general hospital it didn't have specialist cardiac MRI facilities. So I had to be referred to another centre. The outcome found a problem which in itself can't be treated, and won't change any outcomes. But I now know and have an explanation and can be careful with future lifestyle choices. In this instance it changed consultants explanations from suggesting I had a most probable ischemia cause before the scan to clearly a non-ischaemic event and visible issues.

This had some impact in that it changed their risk assessment for my condition. This can only be positive.

I hope this helps. Anxiety I have found out is par for the course but knowledge is very helpful.

[bluemoon572]

Don't wait for any notifications from physicians or physicians' offices about test results. You have to call for these results if you don't hear anything by a week (for nonurgent tests). I'm aware of a two tragic incidents of no notification of malignancy on mammograms until a follow-up one was done many months later. Sometimes even the physician doesn't get a test result.

[Alixia]

hello, what is your family history? Is there a diagnosis for your family members?