I am an 18 year old male college student. Back in July during my annual physical the doctor heard a murmur, so he sent me to see a cardiologist. The cardiologist ran an EKG and echocardiogram, and said that I have mitral valve regurgitation. He said for now we're going to take a monitoring approach to it and have echos every year to watch for progression.

Anyway, I had to rush to class tonight, and forgot to grab my jacket on the way out the door. It is very cold out right now, about 41 degrees, but more like 29 with windchill. It's about a five minute walk from my dorm to the classroom. When I was heading to class, I had some heart palpitations and was shivering pretty noticeably. However, when going back, I made it about halfway and started feeling very dizzy, with shortness of breath and my heart feeling like it was skipping multiple beats. I immediately went to the nearest building and took a rest inside to warm up. I felt like if I had continued on I would've definitely passed out.

I called University Police and explained the situation, and they dispatched a student patrol to come out to walk me back to my dorm. When the student patrol showed up, I explained the situation to him, and he offered to go back to my room and grab my extra jacket for me. With the jacket on and having spent about 20 minutes warming up in the building, I felt a lot better and was able to walk back to my building.

Anyway, I'm going to try to touch base with my cardiologist asap, but does anyone know why cold weather caused these symptoms? I remember last year in high school I was walking around with shorts and sandals around this time of year and didn't have these symptoms.

Thanks

VS

Hi VS,

There is an increased demand for oxygen when under stress, physical exertion and cold weather.

If there is MVR, the heart will not pump all of the blood/oxygen into circulation as some blood goes back into the upper chamber, and/or weak heart contractions. Worst case scenario based on your symptoms.

An echo should provide and rule out weak contractions and dimensions of heart chambers, heart wall thickness, valve disorder, and pumping efficiency. If the dimensions are normal, no enlargement of chambers, and heart wall motion is normal, efficiency is 55 to 70% (EF) of the blood is pumped inton circulation with each stroke the heart would appear to be functioning properly and adequately.

Or it could be a respiratory problem, side effect of medication, poor physical condition, etc. Need more information.