Download Causes of Heart enlargement

Causes of Cardiomegaly
Causes of Cardiomegaly: Online Medical Books
Cardiomegaly: Differential Diagnosis
(In a Page: Signs and Symptoms)

Congestive heart failure

Ischemic heart disease

Hypertension (with left ventricular hypertrophy)

Valvular disease (primarily MR, AS, AR)

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Congenital heart disorders

1q deletion

Heart cancer
Ask the following questions:
1. Is there a murmur? Cardiomegaly with cardiac murmurs suggests valvular disease, but it
also suggests congestive heart failure and advanced myocardiopathies. One should also
be sure that the murmur is not a pericardial friction rub.
2. Is there fever? Fever with cardiomegaly should suggest rheumatic heart disease and
bacterial endocarditis. However, it may also suggest an acute myocarditis or acute
pericarditis.
3. Is there chest pain? Cardiomegaly with chest pain would certainly suggest a myocardial
infarction, but it also may suggest an acute pericarditis.
4. Is there hepatomegaly? Cardiomegaly and hepatomegaly suggest congestive heart failure.
Hepatomegaly also may suggest one of the systemic diseases that causes a
myocardiopathy such as amyloidosis.
5. Is there edema? The presence of peripheral edema would suggest congestive heart failure,
and if it is nonpitting, it would suggest myxedema.
6. Is there hypertension? Cardiomegaly with hypertension would suggest that the
cardiomegaly is due to left ventricular enlargement from the chronic hypertension.
7. Is there cyanosis? Cardiomegaly with cyanosis, particularly if there is an associated
murmur, suggests congenital heart disease of the cyanotic type.
DIAGNOSTIC WORKUP
A CBC, sedimentation rate, ANA, chemistry panel, VDRL test, thyroid profile, EKG, and chest x-ray
should be done on all patients. An echocardiogram will be helpful in diagnosing valvular disease,
myocardiopathies, congestive heart failure, and pericardial effusion. If congestive heart failure is
suspected, venous pressure and circulation time can be measured, and one should do pulmonary
function studies. If there is fever, then one would want to do a streptozyme test, ASO titer, and serial
blood cultures. If there is hypertension, a hypertensive workup may be indicated. Patients with cyanosis
need a workup for congenital heart disease, which will probably include cardiac catheterization and
angiocardiography.
Causes of Heart enlargement
Causes of Heart enlargement:
The following medical conditions are some of the possible causes of Heart enlargement. There are likely
to be other possible causes,

Heart Failure

Hypertension

Ischaemic Heart Disease

Obesity

Diabetes

Smoking

Increased alcohol consumption

Homocystinemia

Previous heart attacks

High cholesterol

High fat diet

Low exercise

Mitral valve disease

Aortic valve disease

Cardiomyopathies

Viral infections

Autoimmune Diseases

Genetic causes

Congenital heart block

Acromegaly

Ischemic heart disease

Dilated cardiomyopathy

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Sarcoidosis

Systemic lupus erythematosus

Polyarteritis nodosa

Rheumatoid arthritis

Chagas disease

Viral myocarditis (type of Myocarditis)

Rickettsial myocarditis (type of Myocarditis)

Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy

Friedreich's ataxia

Dystrophia myotonica

X-linked humeroperoneal neuromuscular disease

Leukemia

Lymphoma

Amyloidosis

Hemochromatosis

Cardiac glycogenosis

Polysaccharide storage disease

Tay-Sachs disease

Fabry's disease

Gout

Oxalosis

Mucopolysaccharidoses

Hurler's syndrome

Refsum's disease

Phaeochromocytoma

Thyrotoxicosis

Myxoedema

Cushing's syndrome

Beri-Beri

Kwashiorkhor

Alcoholism

Cobalt

Systemic hypertension

Aortic stenosis

Coarctation of the aorta

Cor pulmonale

Reactive pulmonary hypertension

Chronic thromboebolic pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary stenosis

Eisenmenger's syndrome

Carcinoid syndrome

Appetite suppressant

Mitral regurgitation

Aortic regurgitation

Systemic arteriovenous fistula

Severe anaemia

Congenital heart disease

Persistent ductus arteriosus

Ventricular septal defect

Paget's disease of bone

Erythroderma

Tricuspid regurgitation
List of 87 causes of Heart enlargement
This section shows a full list of all the diseases and conditions listed as a possible cause of Heart
enlargement in our database from various sources.

1q deletion - cardiomegaly

Acromegaly

Alcoholism

Amyloidosis

Aortic regurgitation

Aortic stenosis

Aortic valve disease

Appetite suppressant

Autoimmune Diseases

Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome - heart enlargement

Beri-Beri

Carcinoid syndrome

Cardiac failure, low output

Cardiac glycogenosis

Cardiomyopathies

Chagas disease

Chronic thromboebolic pulmonary hypertension

Coarctation of the aorta

Cobalt

Congenital heart block

Congenital heart disease

Cor pulmonale

Cushing's syndrome

Diabetes

Dilated cardiomyopathy

Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy

Dystrophia myotonica

Eisenmenger's syndrome

Erythroderma

Fabry's disease

Friedreich's ataxia

Fucosidosis type 1 - heart enlargement

Fucosidosis type II - heart enlargement

Gangliosidosis generalized GM1, type 1 - heart enlargement

Genetic causes

GM1 gangliosidosis - heart enlargement

Gout

Heart cancer - Cardiomegaly

Heart Failure - heart enlargement

Hemochromatosis

High cholesterol

High fat diet

Homocystinemia

Hurler's syndrome

Hypertension

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Increased alcohol consumption

Infantile sialic acid storage disorder - heart enlargement

Ischaemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease - Cardiomegaly

Kwashiorkhor

Leukemia

Low exercise

Lyme disease - heart enlargement

Lymphoma

Mitral regurgitation

Mitral valve disease

Mucopolysaccharidoses

Myxoedema

Obesity

Oxalosis

Paget's disease of bone

Persistent ductus arteriosus

Phaeochromocytoma

Polyarteritis nodosa

Polysaccharide storage disease

Previous heart attacks

Pulmonary stenosis

Reactive pulmonary hypertension

Refsum's disease

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rickettsial myocarditis

Sandhoff Disease - heart enlargement

Sarcoidosis

Severe anaemia

Smoking

Systemic arteriovenous fistula

Systemic hypertension

Systemic lupus erythematosus

Tay-Sachs disease

Thalassemia - heart enlargement

Thyrotoxicosis

Tricuspid regurgitation

Ventricular septal defect

Viral infections

Viral myocarditis
Drug side effect causes of Heart enlargement
The following drugs
, medications, substances or toxins may possibly cause Heart enlargement as a side effect.

Emetine

Chloroquine

Daunorubicin

Doxorubicin
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/symptoms/heart_enlargement/causes.htm
Common causes of Heart enlargement
Introduction:
This information shows the various causes of Heart enlargement, and how common these diseases or
conditions are in the general population. This is not a direct indication as to how commonly these
diseases are the actual cause of Heart enlargement, but gives a relative idea as to how frequent these
diseases are seen overall.
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
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
9 diseases that are "very common".
8 diseases that are "common".
2 diseases that are "uncommon".
2 diseases that are "rare".
10 diseases that are "rare".
72 diseases without any prevalence information.
Causes of Heart enlargement that are very common
The following causes of Heart enlargement are diseases or medical conditions that affect more than 10
million people in the USA:

Alcoholism

Diabetes

High cholesterol

Hypertension

Ischaemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease - Cardiomegaly

Obesity

Smoking

Systemic hypertension
Causes of Heart enlargement that are common
The following causes of Heart enlargement are diseases or conditions that affect more than 1 million
people in the USA:

Autoimmune Diseases

Congenital heart disease

Heart Failure - heart enlargement

Hemochromatosis

Paget's disease of bone

Rheumatoid arthritis

Systemic lupus erythematosus

Thyrotoxicosis
Causes of Heart enlargement that are uncommon
The following causes of Heart enlargement are diseases or conditions that affect more than 200,000
people, but less than 1 million people in the USA:

Gout

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Causes of Heart enlargement that are rare
The offical US government definition of a "rare" disease is one that affects 200,000 people or less. The
following causes of Heart enlargement appear in the population at a rate of less than 200,000 people
per year in the USA:

Fabry's disease

Sandhoff Disease - heart enlargement
Causes of Heart enlargement that are very rare
The following causes of Heart enlargement appear in the population at a rate of substantially less than
200,000 people per year in the USA:

Acromegaly

Amyloidosis

Cardiomyopathies

Coarctation of the aorta

Cushing's syndrome

Leukemia

Lyme disease - heart enlargement

Lymphoma

Sarcoidosis

Thalassemia - heart enlargement
Causes of Heart enlargement without any prevalence information
The following causes of Heart enlargement are ones for which we do not have any prevalence
information.

1q deletion - cardiomegaly

Acromegaly

Alcoholism

Aortic regurgitation

Aortic stenosis

Aortic valve disease

Appetite suppressant

Autoimmune Diseases

Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome - heart enlargement

Beri-Beri

Carcinoid syndrome

Cardiac failure, low output

Cardiac glycogenosis

Chagas disease

Chronic thromboebolic pulmonary hypertension

Coarctation of the aorta

Cobalt

Congenital heart block

Congenital heart disease

Cor pulmonale

Cushing's syndrome

Diabetes

Dilated cardiomyopathy

Duchenne's progressive muscular dystrophy

Dystrophia myotonica

Eisenmenger's syndrome

Erythroderma

Friedreich's ataxia

Fucosidosis type 1 - heart enlargement

Fucosidosis type II - heart enlargement

Gangliosidosis generalized GM1, type 1 - heart enlargement

Genetic causes

GM1 gangliosidosis - heart enlargement

Heart cancer - Cardiomegaly

Heart Failure - heart enlargement

High cholesterol

High fat diet

Homocystinemia

Hurler's syndrome

Hypertension

Increased alcohol consumption

Infantile sialic acid storage disorder - heart enlargement

Kwashiorkhor

Low exercise

Lymphoma

Mitral regurgitation

Mitral valve disease

Mucopolysaccharidoses

Myxoedema

Obesity

Oxalosis

Persistent ductus arteriosus

Phaeochromocytoma

Polyarteritis nodosa

Polysaccharide storage disease

Previous heart attacks

Pulmonary stenosis

Reactive pulmonary hypertension

Refsum's disease

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rickettsial myocarditis

Severe anaemia

Systemic arteriovenous fistula

Systemic hypertension

Systemic lupus erythematosus

Tay-Sachs disease

Thyrotoxicosis

Tricuspid regurgitation

Ventricular septal defect

Viral infections

Viral myocarditis

X-linked humeroperoneal neuromuscular disease
Approach to the Diagnosis
The diagnosis of cardiomegaly can be further developed be a good history and the association of other
symptoms and signs. Is there a history of hypertension, alcoholism, rheumatic fever or other systemic
disease? Has the patient experienced shortness of breath, angina, fever, joint pains, and so forth? Are
there findings of pedal edema, hepatomegaly, or jugular venous distention (CHF)? Are there
hypertension and proteinuria (renal disease or essential hypertension)? Is there a significant heart
murmur (congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease)?
The diagnostic workup will include a CBC, urinalysis, chemistry panel, sedimentation rate, a chest x-ray,
and ECG. At this point, it is wise to consult a cardiologist. Echocardiography will be helpful in diagnosing
valvular heart disease, myocardiopathy, and pericardial effusion. If CHF is suspected, a venous
pressure and circulation time as will as spirometry will support the diagnosis. Echocardiography can
diagnose congestive heart failure by determining the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). If there is
unexplained fever, an ASO titer or streptozyme test should be ordered to rule out rheumatic fever and
perhaps serial blood cultures need to be done to exclude subacute bacterial endocarditis. If there is
hypertension the patient may need a hypertensive workup
TopOther
Useful Tests
1. Exercise tolerance test (coronary insufficiency)
2. Thallium scan (coronary insufficiency)
3. Phonocardiogram (valvular heart disease)
4. ANA analysis (collagen disease)
5. Cardiac catheterization studies (congenital heart disease, rheumatic heart disease)
6. Angiocardiogram (valvular heart disease)
7. Coronary arteriogram (coronary insufficiency)
8. Thyroid profile (myxedema)
9. 24-hour urine catecholamine (pheochromocytoma)
10. Urine thiamine afterload (beriberi)
11. Muscle biopsy (collagen disease, trichinosis)
12. CT scan (mediastinal mass)
13. MRI (dissecting aneurysm)