Enlarged heart?

After dealing with increasingly labored breathing for several days now, my dad—who is still recovering from a stroke he had six months ago—finally reached out to his doctor. He’s being sent in for a battery of tests at the hospital. The first thing they told us was that his heart is enlarged, though we’re still waiting on the rest of the results... Does anyone here have any insight into what an enlarged heart actually implies? Are there specific medications or standard therapies usually prescribed for this?

driftingcobra27 said:After dealing with increasingly labored breathing for several days now, my dad—who is still recovering from a stroke he had six months ago—finally reached out to his doctor. He’s being sent in for a battery of tests at the hospital. The first thing they told us was that his heart is enlarged, though we’re still waiting on the rest of the results... Does anyone here have any insight into what an enlarged heart actually implies? Are there specific medications or standard therapies usually prescribed for this?

If I'm remembering correctly, the technical term for that is dilated cardiomyopathy.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dilated-cardiomyopathy/symptoms-causes/syc-20353311

Is it a case where the entire heart has enlarged, then?

It sounds most likely like dilated cardiomyopathy...
Just make sure you don't start any medications without a cardiologist's go-ahead, specifically things like ACE inhibitors or beta blockers...

Dilatation is just one possibility; there are plenty of other factors in the game, not strictly limited to myocardial issues, that could lead to an X-ray showing cardiomegaly or an enlarged heart.

Thanks for all the input, everyone. My dad is still being run through various tests at the hospital. So far, they’re saying the fluid around half of his heart has receded, but there’s still some left. He actually had a procedure yesterday where they used a needle to drain some of it 😕. They’re sending that fluid off for lab work, so we’re currently in limbo waiting to hear what the next move is and how long his stay might be. Does anyone know what they’re typically looking for when they run an analysis on that kind of fluid?