Hypertrophy of the heart

Introduction What is heart hypertrophy (also known as: fat heart disease), our heart size, related to height and weight, its size is similar to our fist size. From the chest X-ray we can see the heart in the middle of the chest to the left. The width of the normal heart accounts for less than 50% of the width of the chest (cardiopulmonary ratio). Because the chest X-ray measurement of cardiopulmonary ratio is often affected by the lack of inspiratory volume of the subject, sometimes causing relative cardiac hypertrophy, in fact, the heart is not hypertrophic; the radio wave level of the ECG can also tell us whether there is cardiac hypertrophy, Usually high radio waves indicate that there may be cardiac hypertrophy. To accurately measure the size of the heart, cardiac ultrasound is a great tool for measuring the size of each cavity of the heart (such as the left and right atrium, left and right ventricles), as well as the thickness of the left ventricular muscle. It can also tell us by the way the function of the heart valve, whether the heart muscle has lesions, and the function of the left ventricle.

Cause

There are many reasons for cardiac hypertrophy, including hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy, septic heart failure, anterior cardiac infarction, athlete's heart, biceps counterflow, aortic stenosis, proliferative obstructive cardiomyopathy, pulmonary hypertension, cardiopulmonary disease , dilated cardiomyopathy, endocarditis, pericardial hydrops, left ventricular aneurysm, biceps stenosis and so on.

an examination

Related inspection

M-mode echocardiography (ME) Doppler echocardiogram electrocardiogram

When doctors do physical examinations, they sometimes notice the phenomenon of cardiac hypertrophy. Into an electrocardiogram and chest X-ray photography, most of the cardiac hypertrophy can be diagnosed. For a more accurate diagnosis, cardiac ultrasound is the most accurate. Whether the normal blood pressure is well controlled or whether there is progress in cardiac hypertrophy can be used as a basis for evaluation.

Differential diagnosis

1. Heart enlargement (expansion of the cavity)

The so-called heart enlargement is a bit like the room is getting bigger, but the walls of the room (the muscles of the heart) are not thicker, and sometimes the myocardium is thinner. This condition is usually caused by the loss of the original elasticity of the heart muscle, which increases the blood flow and pressure. Common causes are myocarditis and heart valve insufficiency, hyperthyroidism, and vitamin B1 deficiency.

2, cardiac hypertrophy (myocardial hypertrophy)

If you use a room metaphor, heart hypertrophy is like thickening of the wall muscles, but the room does not increase, sometimes it will become smaller, but the whole heart looks bigger than normal. Common causes of this condition are stenosis of the heart's exit (eg, aortic valve stenosis), increased end-vascular resistance (eg, hypertension), and myocardial lesions (eg, hereditary cardiac hypertrophy).

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.