Lisa's Posts

Hi there. I am hoping to find someone else in the community that has experienced what I am going through as I am very fearful and anxious. I'm a 57 year old thin and fit female with a bicuspid aortic valve with mild stenosis, and I have a 4.6 cm asending aortic aneurysm that is dilated at the root. My aneurysm is barrel shaped. So it's lost its waist where it connects to my aortic valve. For about 10 years my atria were showing some dilation on echocardiogram and MRI. Especially my right atrium. But there was never any concern expressed about this finding. For the past 5 years I have been seeing a cardiologist in San Diego at the UCSD adult congenital heart disease clinic. The day after my appointment with my cardiologist last week for my follow-up echocardiogram results I discovered that he had not shared with me that my right atrium has been enlarging quite significantly the past 3 years. So much so that it is now severely enlarged. My right ventricle is mildly dilated as well but functioning well. None of my echocardiograms or MRIS that I've had over the years indicate that I have pulmonary hypertension and my tricuspid valve is only mildly leaking. On my 2025 echo it said my tricuspid valve was mildly to moderately leaking. So it seems the leaking has improved. My bicuspid aortic valve is also only mildly leaking. So other than my congenital left-sided heart disease and my severely enlarged right atrium everything else on echo looks good. I am very upset that my cardiologist, who I have trusted to take care of my heart, has put me in this position. Not only did he not inform me of this situation he has done nothing to proactively try to find out what the cause is and provide a plan for treatment. So, I am currently going through a virtual consult process with the Cleveland Clinic to try to understand the possible causes of the severe right atrial enlargement, how to proceed to figure out definitively what the diagnosis is and how to treat it. What I would like to know from the community is whether anyone here has experienced anything like I am going through right now? If you have I would greatly appreciate you sharing that with me. This has been an incredible gut punch and I am completely shocked by the situation and quite depressed.

Hi, I was born with BAV which is now narrowed at 1.7 cm sq and with mild calcification. I have a mildly stenotic mitral valve that is opening well and is mildly calcified. Both valves have mild regurgitation. I also have an ascending aortic aneurysm at 4.4 cm. Over the past couple of years my left and right atrium have been mildly enlarged. My newest echo shows my right atrium is now moderately enlarged and my left atrium is still mildly enlarged. My left and right ventricles are normal size. Has anyone else in the community experienced atrial dilation and if so what was given as the explanation? Thank you, Lisa Courkamp