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Post by messnjah on Mar 1, 2006 16:16:54 GMT -5
This may be out of most people's expertese, but maybe not out of your personnal experience. I have a heart defect called Ebstien's Amnomaly. I went for an Angeogram (heart cath test) yesterday (not too cool). I haven't gone over the results with my dr. yet, but it looks good. He did tell me however that I should drop my weight to 200# (I think is too light for my frame) and shouldn't lift more than 200# or maybe even consider not armwrestling for risk of aggravating the condition. Does anybody out there have such a condition, and how has it changed your training habits?
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Post by Brian Kehler on Mar 1, 2006 20:20:40 GMT -5
Sorry to hear that dude...
That actually means you have a partially defective tricuspid valve.. and the valve flaps are laying flat or adhesed to the valve walls. With that there's also usually an internal passage between the atria (left and right.. but maybe not).
Anyway with the defective valve, with every beat it doesnt properly close off and blood can leak back instead of being stopped. In most adults it's not serious enough to cause any real problems, but in worse cases it can be repaired.
AND... I went and found this in a medical journal archive:
"Being physically active is good for your cardiovascular system, so stay active. If valve leakage is mild and tests show no abnormal heart rhythms, you can usually participate in most sports. Your cardiologist may recommend avoiding certain intense competitive sports. Ask your cardiologist which activities are right for you."
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Post by John Reimer on Mar 2, 2006 9:12:14 GMT -5
messnjah, thanks for posting this. I read up on this condition since I hadn't heard of it before or, at least, hadn't heard of the name given to it. Thank you for bringing the topic up, since it's always educational to know about these things. Please forgive me if I go into too much detail here. I am fascinated by cardiac physiology and pathophysiology. I think, though, that it doesn't necessarily include all leaflets/flaps of the valve (since there are three leaflets in the valve on the right side); if all leaflets were involved the condition would be dangerous. It may only include one leaflet, which adheres to the side of the valve wall, the point between the right atrium and right ventricle. There are little stringy tendony things ( excuse the technical jargon ) that attach to these leaflets from inside the lower part of the right ventricle muscle (lower heart chamber): they are called chordae tendinae, and they aid in keeping these flaps shut when the right ventricle contracts to pump blood to the lungs. In this case, I guess the chordae tendinae manage to close only one or two out of the three flaps, producing an imperfect seal between the two heart chambers during ventricle contraction. That means blood not only "squirts" to the lungs (as it should) on each right ventricle contraction but also skirts back wards into the right atrium (a bad thing). The heart is so efficient and most people use such a small portion of their cardiac reserve in everyday life, that it's likely the problem would go unnoticed in most circumstances until the person practices extreme physical activity. The discovery of the condition also probably doesn't happen until later life because with increased age your central pump gets less and less efficient. That's why it's likely important to remain slim, trim, and fit to give your heart low system load requirements and a high cardio-vascular efficiency. If all leaflets were involved, that would cause a very severe regurgitation problem which likely would need repair; this would likely produce a very noticeable heart murmur and cause reduced pulmonary circulation (circulation to the lungs where you blood gets pumped to get saturated with oxygen). That's why shortness of breath, cyanosis (blue look you get when your body doesn't get enough oxygen), cardiac arrhythmias (problem in the electrical conduction system possibly caused by inadequate oxygenation of pacemaker cells), tachycardia (rapid heart beat), and pulmonary embolism (sign that your blood is clotting up and plugging up your lung circulation from severe regurgitation) are all warning signs. With a single leaflet, according to what I've read and what kehler said, it appears to be completely manageable as long as one doesn't pursue the strenuous sports (arm wrestling? ) or acquire a secondary heart problem like endocarditis (infection of the interior surface of the heart) or arrhythmias (electrical mal-conductions in the natural heart pacemaker system) or other anomalies that would affect heart efficiency. Note also that there appears to be increased likelihood of acquiring these secondary conditions when a person has Ebstien's Anomaly; these secondary conditions can also occur in athletes that over-train; the weakened state of the body just isn't conducive to protective measures here; it works similarly with Ebstien's Anomaly, I suppose, with the effective reduction in cardiac reserve. The difference is that the athlete is using up cardiac reserve by excessive training which puts an unnatural strain on the heart, whereas the Ebstien's person has a intrinsic mechanical reduction in cardiac efficiency. The quote kehler gave above from the medical journal seems to be the common recommendation for this condition. Anyway, I hope the best for you. If you have the mild form of the condition, I don't know how that affects your arm wrestling. Did your doctor say that you could continue arm wrestling without problems? I'm interested to know. As is always the case, I'm not a cardiologist, just an interested observer, so be sure to study up on the your condition well lest I provide inaccurate data. Further, ask your cardiologist what he recommends you are capable of. Now I'm feeling a little sheepish because that wasn't really the information you were asking for and perhaps you knew all that already. But maybe the information will prove useful/interesting to others. - John
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Post by messnjah on Mar 2, 2006 11:18:43 GMT -5
I have an appointment early April to see my heart doc. We'll go over things then and see what comes of it. And there is not such thing as too much info .. so I appreciate your time in replying.
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Post by John Reimer on Mar 2, 2006 12:41:13 GMT -5
Okay, good to know, messnjah. I hope all goes well. A small technical correction to my post: it was not correct to say that the chordae tendinae /close/ the tricuspid leaflets; instead their action is to /maintain/ the closure during ventricular contraction (if you have heard about the normal heart sounds S1 and S2, the closure of the tricuspid valve constitutes S1). Actual closure of the valve is a result of a pressure gradient changes as blood fills the right ventricle and leaves the right atrium during atrial contraction. If the chordae tendinae didn't do their job, the valves would "prolapse" open again, and there would be complete atrial regurgatation from the ventricle, another dangerous problem.
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