what is prominent pulmonary arch

Hi,
I just had my pacemaker put in 2 days ago. When I was looking through my discharge papers, I saw a note that the radiologist wanted to do another x-ray to rule out prominent pulmonary artery. This was never mentioned to me and when I called the Dr, she said not to worry, it's probably nothing. I'm starting to panic now because all I've seen on the internet about it sounds like it could be serious.
Also, I've been feeling and audibly hearing my heartbeat down low under mt left breast. Mostly when I lay flat on my back. When I called the pacemaker clinic, the technician said she has never heard of this and I am just nervous.

Thanks for any input,
Jacklyn

2 Comments

A quick note

by Zetha - 2015-11-19 07:11:08

Hi, just a quick note..... I cannot advise on the prominent pulmonary artery, you will need a doctor for that, but I can relate to feeling the heartbeat in the chest. At first I experienced the same, especially the first few days after PM procedure in September. My husband also said it was my imagination as I was focusing too much on my heartbeat..... that might have been the case, I do not know, but I can only tell you that it went away after a while!

Regards, Zetha.

A couple of things

by Theknotguy - 2015-11-19 08:11:00

First, if your cardiologist isn't concerned, I wouldn't be concerned. Sometimes one doctor sees something and points it out. But a more experienced doctor may know it's just how different people look differently.

As far as audibly hearing heartbeat, yep you can. However why you are hearing it and how you are hearing it can be due to a couple of things.

They had the voltage on my PM set higher for about the first 30 days. I'm thinking it was to help get my heart accustomed to having the PM being in charge of things. Anyway... for the first 30 days I could sometimes feel the electrical tickle followed by the hard thump of the heartbeat. It would sometimes wake me up at night. Was watching the tech when they lowered the voltage and I no longer felt the tickle or the hard thump.

You've only had the PM for two days. There still is a lot of swelling and they may have the voltage set higher. Because of the swelling and settings, you may be feeling (and hearing) your heartbeat. Another thing to think of, you may be getting a stronger heartbeat because the PM is giving you a definitive start to your heartbeat. Not to mention, just going through the procedure of getting a PM makes you more aware of heart activity. Before getting the PM you might not have even noticed.

In any case, as the swelling goes down the feelings should go away. And, if they need to lower the voltage at the 30 day period, you'll be less likely to feel or hear your heartbeat.

My cardiologist told me I have mitral valve regurgitation. When you look it up on the Internet it looks serious. Then you find out 20% of the people over 60 in the world are walking around with mitral valve regurgitation and don't even know they have it. Same for your prominent artery. Maybe yours is a little prominent but not outside the "normal" range so it's nothing to worry about. Like I said, if your cardiologist isn't concerned, I wouldn't be concerned.

Hope everything else is going well for you and that you have a good recovery.

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