Hi I'm 36 year old female who was hospitalized in May for chest pain and elevated blood pressure. I am currently taking Metoprolol 50mg twice a day. My question is I had echocardiogram showed mildly thickened mitral valve leaflets. Trace mitral regurgitation. Mild tricuspid regurgitation, and trace pulmonic regurgitation is there something I should be doing to help with these issues, I haven't been back to a doctor and I haven't been consistent with the meds but no one seemed to concerned with my issues, actually doctor said if I was a guy he would be more concerned. I'm not stressed about it but don't want to end up in the hospital again, and I have been having shortness of breath for about a week now. Any advice would be great.
9/ 7/09 4:40pm
Hi Patty,
I'd be concerned that your physician isn't taking your condition as seriously, since you are female versus male. Here is a post you may want to read from Dr. Shelby-Lane discussing heart disease in women - http://www.healthcentral.com/heart-disease/c/45112/60617/questions-dr.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
9/ 8/09 9:58am
HI Patty: I agree with Lisa. I'd be concerned that people aren't following you up like they should.
Currently there's no real good medical studies to know what to do with mild thickening of the heart valves. Many people have trace to mild leakage of the valves and it isn't considered clinically a problem. So the reason that your doctors may not have seemed that interested is that its hard to know what to do with minimal echocardiographic changes.
Certainly controlling the blood pressure is important. My own personal feeling (and this is just my feeling) is that following an anti-inflammatory diet is important. I usually recommend the Mediterranean Diet as a general priniciple of good cardiac health. It can't hurt a person, and certainly is known to prevent coronary heart disease. It is antiinflammatory for the body.
I hope this has helped you some.
Dr. Kirk Laman
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By Patty— Last Modified: 12/25/10, First Published: 09/07/09
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