Hi, everyone --

Here's an issue where I am looking for information and insight on two separate questions. 

During my annual physical this fall, my doctor took a routine chest x-ray, and called me a few days later to say that it showed I had an enlarged heart. He used convoluted language so he wouldn't have to use that phrase, because it could be alarming. But I knew what he meant. 

He sent me to a cardiologist, a renowned expert in our region who shot through the exam room on roller skates after his nurse had conducted an EKG and interviewed me. I hardly got to complete a sentence without his interrupting to say, I've got that. I asked him if this could be related to my mild hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Yes, he said, there is a heart condition that is related to cerebral palsy, but true to form he provided no details.  He probably figured there was no reason to talk to me about it unless it figured in his final diagnosis. He gave me an appointment for a stress test that was two months out, so I figured he couldn't be too alarmed. 

I thought I had something specific I could look up, but the Internet was as maddening as ever in its vagueness. It seems that the older you are and the milder your symptoms are, the less likely you are to find useful information about CP. 

Oh, and I got a little more info from the EKG report, slipped to me by my PT. I have a heart murmur, possibly as a result of hypertension, though it possibly is of no consequence. The report suggested that the doctor was undecided between a physical stress test and a chemical one, though in his "visit" (doing violent injustice to this noble word by ascribing it to his brief interlude with me) he left the impression that it would be physical. 

So essentially, I have two questions:

1. Do any of you know anything about this CP-related heart condition, merely acknowledged in passing?
2. What are the comparative advantages and drawbacks of stress tests, physical and chemical? (I'm 65, and on a good day I can walk two miles in 40 to 50 minutes.)

Thanks so much for your help.

Karl




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