I just had an echo gram of my heart today and was told
I have thickening of the heart, and was told it is caused by years of untreated high blood pressure.
Up until this year I have never had high blood pressure.
Does any one know if there's anything else that can
cause thickening of the heart?
I've also been told that if your finger nails have
ripples or waves up and down not sideways that's an indication of heart trouble. Can anyone confirm this?
Susie,
I had years of untreated hypertension, and never had an ECG--I was treated, and by the time I had an ECG, no abnormal thickening was observed.. My brother was found to have a slight thickening of the walls also during a recent ECG. He is now on medication to reduce his blood pressure. Once you bring the bp down, I would suspect that you will also see a reversal in the the thickening.
As for the fingernails waves, I have never seen that reported anywhere in the literature that I have read.
To RC
I don't know how many years it takes. I was just
told I had a very thick layer around my heart which
was caused by high blood pressure. I asked could it
have occured in the last 10 months and he said no
it takes years for that to happen. I was puzzled
because I've never had high blood pressure until this year and didn't even ask how many years. Sorry
Originally posted by rc1975: how many years of untreated high blood pressure usually take a toll on the heart or kidneys??
WEll, I am 36 now, started treatment for high bp in 1997, but had high bp at least since 1992. Suffered heart attack in March and have had angioplasty and stent placement in 2 arteries.
As little as 5 years then can take a toll on the heart. Luckily my kidneys seem to have made it through that and about 3 years of undiagnosed diabetes.
Weight loss and exercise has taken away the type II diabetes, and diet, exercise and meds control the blood pressure. I learned the hard way that bp is not something to fool around with by ignoring it.
myproblem is every time i go to the doctor my bp is normal and when im home or come home from work its high when i use my machine so they cant treat it bc they think i dont have high bp but i can feel when im stressed and it gets high, so i dont know what to do? any suggestions. im only 28 and already have aortic scerlois( however u spell it) but they said it wasnt bad so no meds
Hey Ron,
Whats important now is that you don't take the same path that I did. It sounds like you are well on your way to not following in my footsteps, which is very good.
You know your body and how you feel best. I noticed a few weeks ago that my blood pressure crept up some to the 140/90 and higher range when I woke up. I immediately went to the doctor and had consistent results, such that I could be placed on a beta-blocker again.
Anyway, if you know you are running high, and it is stress related, you might be able to manage it solely on stress reduction techniques. If you think you have chronic hypertension, where its constantly above 140 systolic or 90 diastolic, then perhaps take your cuff with you to the doctor and measure it at the same time?
[This message has been edited by ubernier (edited 11-26-2002).]
thanks for the reply, i am brining my machine in next appt so we'll see what happens. have a stress test on 12/10 so they'll see if theres any damage yet. thanks
Thickening of Heart 
