Heart Stress Test Results

Nobody has called me yet but the written report is online on St. Joseph’s patient portal. I read it but don’t really understand anything that was written. I had to look up a lot of words but I still don’t know what the results are. I guess it’s up to UCLA to decide whether my heart is healthy enough for a transplant. I’m hoping one of the St. Joseph cardiologists or UCLA will call me with more info.

IMPRESSIONS:

1. Moderate LV enlargement with moderate post-stress LV systolic dysfunction (post-stress gated SPECT LV EF 37%).
2. Medium to large sized fixed inferior and inferolateral defect consistent with infarction.

Compared to the report of the study dated 11/16/2016, the inferior and inferolateral infarct complicated by moderate LV systolic dysfunction are new.

I guess LV stands for left ventricle, and the dictionary defines infarction as obstruction of the blood supply to an organ or region of tissue, typically by a thrombus or embolus, causing local death of the tissue. I think the event is what caused me to go to the ER and having to get the bypass surgery. I did meet with a cardiologist from UCLA back in April who review my files from St. Joseph and he cleared me for transplant.

There are so many tests and decision points in this whole process. I feel like my sister or me can be rejected at any point for one of a thousand reasons. I wonder how any live donor transplants are performed? The donor and patient must be super healthy.

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Crap. From this website that explains EF (ejection fraction), under 40% indicates heart failure or cardiomyopathy. My result is 37%, which means the left ventricle is only pumping out 37% of the blood during each contraction. I hope this doesn’t have anything to do with my current fluid overload problems. Now I’m stressed out and worried that I will be ruled out for the transplant.

I’m also angry with UCLA for delaying the transplant for so long. One of my fears initially is that when UCLA was finally ready for transplant, my health had deteriorated over time so I don’t qualify for a transplant anymore; over 90% of dialysis patients cannot get a transplant. Now it looks like this worst case scenario may be coming true.