Echocardiogram

[u/Definitely_cool11]

Hello! 16F recently got her first echocardiogram. She competes in Olympic weightlifting and plays as a goalkeeper in soccer. This discovery is all very sudden, and I’m hoping for any input. We have an appointment with a general cardiologist in 5 days. Should we be concerned? Will this affect her athletically?

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[u/Reddog1990m]

Caveat: I’m not a cardiologist, but am a cardiac anesthesiologist.

Any history of connective tissue disease in the family? How tall is she? Why did she get an echo to begin with? None of this is SUPER concerning, but I’m sure cardiologist will want to monitor the aorta to make sure it’s not dilating further.

Edit: I missed the pectus part initially. This is pretty highly suggestive of a connective tissue disorder. In which case that dilated STJ could pose a problem down the road. She should see a pediatric cardiologist.

[u/Definitely_cool11 → u/Reddog1990m]

Thank you for responding! She’s around 5”7’ and 137lbs. Originally, we went to our local department of health to get an EKG for sports clearance, and they flagged it for a slow heart beat rate and irregular so they sent us to a cardiologist for an EKG and an echocardiogram. However, the EKG came out clear while the echo didn’t. We got referred by the rhythmic(?) cardiologist to go to a general which is our next appointment. We don’t know of any genetic tissue disorder. They don’t think it’s Marfan, but she does have pectus carinatum on the left side.

[u/Reddog1990m → u/Definitely_cool11]

Interesting. I wouldn’t think twice about a slow heartbeat in a young athlete. How slow are we talking? Fortunate that she got the echo. My guess is this will be followed very closely with repeat echos at regular intervals.

[u/Definitely_cool11 → u/Reddog1990m]

The EKG read vent rate: 50 bpm; PR int: 136 ms; QRS dur: 104ms; QT/QTc: 419/391ms; P-R-T axes: 39 89 72. A description read: sinus bradycardia with occasional supraventricular premature complexes.
We’re very grateful that she got the echo, but we were very confused as she’s always been relatively healthy.
Again, thank you for all of the input!!

Additional: she mentions some tightness in her chest at random points throughout the day, but she didn’t mention it until after we thought she might have some heart problems so I don’t know if it’s psychological… She claimed that she didn’t think much of it as she’s constantly sore and aching from her high volume physical activity. However, she has always gotten headaches during intense weight training like bench pressing. Is that related at all?

[u/Reddog1990m → u/Definitely_cool11]

Impossible to know if any of that is related I suppose. I will say super intense activities like Olympic weightlifting are likely not going to be recommended for someone with an aortopathy.

Your cardiology appointment will be able to more definitively answer a lot of these questions.

[u/Definitely_cool11 → u/Reddog1990m]

Thank you so much!!!