I had an echocardiogram (ultrasound) this morning. The technician said the software used AI to construct a 3D image of my heart from the ultrasound which is 2D. This is different from a CT scan which uses X-Rays to construct a 3D image.
Wendy
2 Likes
..bout to ask, but everyone is making this software.
Several companies develop AI 3D echocardiogram software, with Philips and Siemens Healthineers being prominent examples that offer their own integrated solutions. Additionally, companies like Us2.ai create AI software that is licensed and integrated into other manufacturers’ systems, such as Fujifilm’s LISENDO 880. Other developers in this space include GE Healthcare, TomTec, and Ultromics, which provide AI-powered features or standalone software platforms.
@WendyBG …… everything OK with the echo? After the first year, dh’s follow-ups took the form of echo, CT angio (yes, I know…..radiation….but it’s risk /benefit conundrum) and then a visit with the intervention cardiologist. A long morning but a meaningful decision by the journey home. Your experience is likely to be different from dh’s, mind, since his valve replacement was for aortic incompetence caused by the rapidly distended ascending aorta and preventing the leaflets from fully closing. The exact opposite of your situation in every respect really.
The congenital aortopathy responsible obviously hasn’t gone away, so I guess a particularly close eye is also being kept on the junction of the replaced aorta and the real thing for any dehiscensce …… in addition to anything to do with the valve ……and everything else.
@VeeEnn it’s too early to know about the echo which was done less than 24 hours ago. But I will post the results if you like.
I contacted my cardiologist before my consult to ask if he wanted me to get an echo before the visit so he would have the result in hand. He answered no. Maybe he wanted to see me first and then decide what tests he needed.
I look pretty good. I’m asymptomatic and back to my usual exercise routines. (After many months of extreme weakness and gradual recovery.) So he probably decided that he only needed the echo and not a CT scan.
My surgery was simpler than your husband’s bio-Bentall procedure. The valve and ascending aorta were replaced but the upper junction is below the 3 arterial takeoffs. So the super-tricky Bentall surgery wasn’t done, just a simple tube attachment. Also, I got a large, 25 mm diameter aortic valve and my resting pulse (after a few months of rising to 85) has subsided back to its normal 65.
The echo technician told me that my ejection fraction is 52%. This is at the low end of normal which is 50% to 70%. A normal left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) for a woman aged 71 is generally between 55% and 75%.
My cardiologist told me to keep my exercise heart rate at 70% of my age adjusted max. This calculates out to 109 bpm which is barely a warm-up for me. My usual Zumba and fitness workouts are usually 120-130 bpm with excursions to 150. That’s the only way I can keep fit.
The tech told me that he has seen endurance athletes with very low <50% ejection fractions that normalized when they are exercising. So I’m not sure what to do.
Wendy
1 Like
How about a stress test?
I did the stress test before I did my cardiac rehab series. I passed with a heart rate up to 145.
Wendy
My last stress test was before I realised I was a cardiac cripple. I almost didn’t “pass” (if that’s the right word) because, given longstanding endurance training I could run pretty briskly and stay in Z2.
That turned out to be faster than stress testees are expected to run, apparently, because as the belt speed and incline were increasing I was still nattering away quite comfortably to the young ex phys chap who was conducting the test.
Sort of reached the maximum for both time and their idea of intensity with heart rate still below their cutoff (probably the % of 220-age formula)…..which actually, in aerobic fitness terms is a Gold Medal win. Unwilling to change the mandated belt speed/incline parameters, there was mention of a medication induced increase in heart rate……that did it. Being put in the same category as real cardiac cripples who couldn’t run if their lives depended on it…..and had probably never bothered to in the past …. riled me up enough that I did it. Got phosphorylated enough to add an arbitrary few more beats to an arbitrary formula derived goal…..and I “passed”.
1 Like
@VeeEnn the tech was afraid to do my stress test given my surgery so she demanded an actual (local) cardiologist to monitor me. I told the cardiologist not to worry since I could carry a 30 pound basket of wood up a flight of stairs. After the test, the cardiologist said, “Did you tell your cardiologist what you’re doing?”
Wendy
2 Likes
Since you’re asymptomatic and back to your normal exercise routine, I wouldn’t do anything. Sounds like you a having information overload. Return to the KISS principle.
3 Likes