Hi guys,
I met my old friend today who I know from high school while I was walking with my dog through the park. We stayed there for hours chatting and laughing to stories from the past. He mentioned that he is doing fine, except that his doctor told him that he might have bilateral atrial enlargement which is pretty rare and that he should go do ECG in order for them to know for sure.
Now, my friend has a friend who told him that this couldn't be possibly seen on ECG which doesn't make sense, doctor should know better. So what can you guys tell me, how common is this bilateral atrial enlargement and can it be seen on ECG?
Hi Lisa,
Bilateral atrial enlargement is when both of your atria are enlarged.
Common causes of bilateral enlargement include restrictive cardiomyopathy, rheumatic heart disease and constrictive pericarditis. This would mean that your friend probably has some additional health issues which he didn't really want to tell you about. It is his personal thing anyway.
This isn't really common, I heard that someone has it only once because it's an unusual cause of massive cardiomegaly.
When it comes to ECG, it can definitely be seen on it. Two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography helps in delivering the definitive diagnosis so it's the best way of diagnosing it, if not the only way.
Hey Lisa,
Like Health n Joy wrote, it isn't a very common condition, it is rather rare.
When it comes to ECG, I'm really not sure. I know some people who were complaining about their ECG results. Here's the thing. One of them had ECG done one year before he had it done for the second time. When he did it for the first time, the results didn't show him having bilateral atrial enlargement, while the second ECG showed that he had it. Even his doctor wasn't sure what really happened, did the ECG fail on the first reading or did it fail on the second.
Hey everyone,
It doesn't necessarily have to mean that the ECG failed, Stradivarius, actually, I'm pretty sure that ECG didn't fail since it's the best way of diagnosing someone with bilateral atrial enlargement. What happened there is that his doctor didn't know that your atria can enlarge in one year of time.
It is quite simple, he didn't have bilateral atrial enlargement one year ago when he went to ECG for the first time. In the following year, he got his atria enlarged for one of the reasons that Health n Joy wrote and that's why the second ECG showed that he has bilateral atrial enlargement.
Good day everyone.
Bilateral atrial enlargement is diagnosed when criteria for both – right and left atrial enlargement are present on the same ECG.
My friend has this diagnose and I was talking about this with her since I am not familiar with it. I asked her what this is and she explained to me. I asked her is this a common to the patients and she told me it is not. Her doctor told this to her.
I really don’t understand this diagnose but I believe that she knows more than I do.
I hope that this is helpful.
Have a nice day.
Good day.
It is actually really rare as far as I know. I am almost sure that this enlargement can be caused by conditions that cause your heart to pump blood harder than usual. That can damage your heart muscle and this can be seen on ECG. At least, I think so. Sometimes, the heart enlarges and become very weak. Damage to the heart can be very dangerous.
But bilateral atrial enlargement is really rare. Actually, I don’t know anyone who has problem with it.
It should never be left untreated. It is amazing thing that you can see it on ECG and your doctor can prescribe some therapy for you immediately.
Hey everyone.
Well I could swear that bilateral atrial enlargement is very common since I know three people with it. They all were diagnosed with this disease because it was shown on ECG. So, I think that it is pretty much common in people and of course that it can be seen on the ECG. That is I believe that only way for doctors to be sure that you are having bilateral atrial enlargement or not. But I have to agree with someone in here that people sometimes are complaining on ECG. So the only way to be sure do you have this or not is to repeat ECG several times.
Good day everyone. I know only one person who has bilateral atrial enlargement and that is my aunt. I believe that there isn't any disease that she didn't caught. I think that she has every heart disease that exists. But I remember clearly that her doctors didn’t notice that on ECG. When she went to do some analyses for the first time, they haven’t noticed it. They noticed it at third ECG. So I believe that others are absolutely right – this disease is not that common and it can be seen on ECG but you can’t bet that your doctor will notice it at first ECG.