cardiomegaly

cardiomegaly

 [kahr″de-o-meg´ah-le]

abnormal enlargement of the heart from either hypertrophy or dilatation.

car·di·o·meg·a·ly

(kar'dē-ō-meg'ă-lē),

Enlargement of the heart.

Synonym(s): macrocardia, megacardia, megalocardia

[cardio- + G. megas, large]

cardiomegaly

(kär′dē-ō-mĕg′ə-lē)

n.

Enlargement of the heart. Also called megalocardia.

cardiomegaly

Enlargement of the heart

car·di·o·meg·a·ly

(kahr'dē-ō-meg'ă-lē)

Enlargement of the heart.
Synonym(s): macrocardia, megalocardia.

[cardio- + G. megas, large]

cardiomegaly

Enlargement of the heart. This is caused by an increase in the bulk of the heart muscle (hypertrophy) or by a ballooning out of the chambers of the heart (dilatation).

Cardiomegaly

An enlarged heart.

Mentioned in: Kawasaki Syndrome

car·di·o·meg·a·ly

(kahr'dē-ō-meg'ă-lē)

Enlarged heart.

[cardio- + G. megas, large]

Patient discussion about cardiomegaly

Q. What causes Cardiomegaly? My Husband has had a physical checkup and has found to have Cardiomegaly. What does it mean and what causes it?

A. Cardiomegaly is a condition wherein the heart enlarges. Cardiomegaly occurs if the heart is more than 50 percent bigger than the inner diameter of one’s rib cage. It can be caused by many different things, but mostly it is because of low heart output, otherwise referred to as a cardiac failure.

Q. Why does Aortic stenosis causes an enlarged heart? My father was recently diagnosed as suffering from enlarged heart due to his Aortic stenosis. what is the connection between those to conditions? As far as I understand that aortic stenosis mean that the aortic valve is too small not too large...

A. there are several explanations for the enlargement of the heart that occurs due to Aortic stenosis. the most reasonable is that the mechanical power that the heart uses makes it bigger. it easy to see it here: http://www.marvistavet.com/assets/images/aortic_stenosis.gif
this is called Left Ventricular Hypertrophy or LVH in abbreviations.
this is a classic LVH E.C.G.
http://www.frca.co.uk/images_main/resources/ECG/ECGresource39.jpg

Q. what does enlarged heart mean? is it linked to down syndrome? My wife is 16 weeks pregnant. we did a prenatal US and we were told that the baby hes an enlarged heart and that we are advised to do amniocentesis. A friend of mine had a baby with down syndrome, and he was toled that if they have done this procedure, the doctors could have find it on time and abort the pregnancy. Is there a clear connection between the enlarged hart and the fact that the doctor advised us to do this procedure to down syndrome?

A. Down syndrome is associated with several kinds of heart problems. those problems can cause an enlarged heart but usually it will appears as a post-natal complication.
The protocol that most obstetrics use is that if there is anything abnormal in the US there is an automatic referral to an amniocentesis procedure.
the US has a lot of false alarms, so they must check with the more accurate procedure.