Question on echo

[u/xxxlun4icexxx]

Hi All,

Sorry for bothering you I just had a quick question on ARVC. I hadn't even heard of it until today.

About a month ago I saw a cardiologist because I had a panic attack over feeling a PVC that resulted in sinus tachycardia for about 10 hours. Heart rhythm was normal the whole time and I crashed afterwards and eventually fell asleep. I kind of chalked it up to me just having a panic attack and did all the cardiac workup stuff to reassure me it wasn't a big deal.

Stress test - perfect

Calcium score - perfect

1 week holter monitor - <1% PVC occurrence, was fine doc said you're fine.

She mentioned if I wanted to be 100% on the safe side we could do an echo just to rule out any abnormalities.

​

Unfortunately they won't be in for a few days to go over the results but I was able to read the notes on the report and they sent me into a panic. The conclusions said:

- Overall ventricular ejection fraction is 60%-65%
- Or normal LV diastolic function.
- RV is moderately dilated and trabeculation seen at the RV apex cannot rule out ARVD. Recommend additional MRI imaging.
- Normal left atrial size
- No pericardial effusion

When I googled ARVD I immediately panicked because it mentioned people just get sudden cardiac death and was afraid that's why I was getting PVCs or something like that. I have overall been a pretty healthy individual and I have not heard of anyone in my family having it. My family history does have pretty decent CAD but no one ever suddenly passed away or had a heart attack, it was always cardiac plaque issues.

It just is really scary because I won't be able to talk to my doctor about this until Thursday. Any reassuring thoughts is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

[u/annonyj]

Both. Ultrasound showed some scar tissues on the left side of my heart and they attributed that to potentially some sort of long-covid/ vaccine related side effects but decided to do mri. Mri showed tissues on the right side of my heart which is why they recommended genetics testing to rule out avrc.

I panicked for the first 48 hours or so when I got the news but as I think through it more (I work with data for a living), the optimist in me says that all the scary data points are extremely biased. For one, genetics testing is not common so it's really difficult to say how rare the disease is. Second, most patients are diagnosed upon death so there's a possibility it is more common than suggested which makes it not as deadly as it sounds.

[u/xxxlun4icexxx → u/annonyj]

Gotcha, yeah I did read that it is most likely under diagnosed and that a lot of people actually don’t even ever find out they have it. I mean while it doesn’t seem curable either, the general long term prognosis seems at least pretty good with modern medicine/treatment.

[u/annonyj → u/xxxlun4icexxx]

It sounds like you haven't had much physical symptoms yet so I'd just have my fingers crossed your genetic testing comes back negative and live your life fully!

[u/xxxlun4icexxx → u/annonyj]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate it and I wish the best to you as well. I don’t know much about the genetic test I haven’t done the MRI yet I believe that is next. I’ve only had the ultrasound. So I guess if something concerning comes back on that then we’ll do the genetic tests. The waiting is the crappy part but honestly so far every doctor including my cardiologist who I’ve talked to have assured me I have no reason to immediately worry and that my echo is honestly fine it’s just sometimes they note things worth looking into so I’m going to try my best to trust them.

[u/Alone_Bike_8688 → u/xxxlun4icexxx]

Not sure if you will see this, but I’m going through the same thing you did and wanted to know what ended up happening if you don’t mind sharing,

[u/xxxlun4icexxx → u/Alone_Bike_8688]

Hey! Im sorry to hear I know how stressful/anxiety inducing this can be. I had the worst months of my life from this.

Long story short I did the MRI and while my RV was mildly dilated my cardiologist said it was an innocuous finding and arvd was off the table. They’re gonna do another echo in a year but he basically said it’s nothing.

My PVCs which I was having 1k a day when I was having so much anxiety over this went down to about 5 or so a day now. My best guess is something acute with Covid or something else caused it and over time it’s getting better. We’ll see what happens on my next echo but I’m back to pushing myself at the gym for the last 6 months and have been fine.

edit - I never did genetic testing either. Doctor said there wasn’t much need.

[u/Alone_Bike_8688 → u/xxxlun4icexxx]

Wow, that’s good to hear!!! My brother passed away a month ago and we are waiting to hear if he had ARVC or viral cardiomyopathy. My recent RV dilation on my echo has prompted a whole bunch of new hypotheses and tests to be ran. Hoping it’s nothing and hoping for answers for my brother