hypertension Cardiac Hypertrophy

[Carl the Engineer]

Ok,

So, my DBQ for heart disease says, "evidence of cardiac hypertrophy", "yes".

DBQ medical opinion,

a. least as likely as not, 50% greater, etc., resulted from a service connected condition (hypertension), so a win I believe.

c. Rationale, documented left ventricular enlargement.

From what I read in the rating scale, most of the heart disease codes call for 30% for cardiac hypertrophy,

My METs are/is to high (12.7), but the paragraphs state "or", so should I get the 30%??

 

Workload of greater than 5 METs but not greater than 7 METs results in dyspnea, fatigue, angina, dizziness, or syncope, or; evidence of

cardiac hypertrophy or dilatation on electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, or X-ray................................................................................... 30 

 

What are your thoughts?

Hamslice

 

Edited July 1, 2016 by Hamslice
spelling

[broncovet]

Cardiac hypertrophy is a diagnosis, 12.7 mets would probably be evidence.  What are your symptoms?  

Thats what they rate on ...symptoms, not diagnosis.  If its asymptomatic, then its likely 0%.  Does the thickeing of your heart cause shortness of breath?  Pain?  Something else?  

Or, maybe like you said, its entirely on mets.  Some VA stuff is weird, such as sleep apnea...its you either wear a cpap or not, once service connected.  I guess they presume the doc wont be prescribing a cpap if you have no symptoms.  

Edited July 6, 2016 by broncovet

[Carl the Engineer]

Symptoms aside, the reg says 30% for evidence of Cardiac hypertrophy, and my DBQ say yes, for that question.

My only concern is my METS is too high a number for 30% (5-7 METS) and mine is 12.7.

But the reg for 30% says, 5-7 METS OR Cardiac hyopertrophy.  Just wondering how the VA interprits OR.

My symptoms as reported in the DBQ;

Veteran served in the Army from 1999 to 2008, and was in Iraq from 2003 to 2004. States that he was found to have an elevated blood pressure during a routine examination in 6/2004 when he came back from Iraq, and several other times after that. Reports that he was diagnosed with hypertension in 2008, and started on medication. States he was told in 1999 that he had an abnormal EKG that showed possible left ventricular enlargement. In 9/2015 he was having episodes of chest pain, and went to a cardiologist for a cardiac workup. States that he had an echocardiogram that showed he did have left ventricular hypertrophy

Also from the DBQ;

a. Is there evidence of cardiac hypertrophy? [X] Yes [ ] No

If yes, indicate how this condition was documented:

[ ] EKG [ ] Chest x-ray [X] Echocardiogram

Date of test: 6/22/2016

 

So, the question of the day is, what does OR mean??

Thanks for the imput,

Hamslice