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New Test Finds Hidden Hole in the Heart
Over the years, Clifford McKenzie had found himself surprisingly short of breath after exercising, but never paid it much attention. That changed on New Year’s Eve 2003 when he collapsed during a ski trip in Colorado and had to be airlifted to Denver for emergency treatment. Ten months later McKenzie was one of the first patients to undergo a cutting edge medical test, developed by National Jewish physician Howard Weinberger, MD, that found a hole in his heart.
After the ski trip, the shortness of breath became worse, and eventually, McKenzie was unable to walk his dog for even a short distance. Two doctors told the former Kiowa Tribal Chief that he would need a heart transplant, and a third told him there was nothing that could be done about his condition.
McKenzie came to National Jewish and met with Dr. Weinberger, head of the cardiology division. Dr. Weinberger had recently developed a diagnostic test specifically for patients like McKenzie.
“I had noticed a number of patients who developed shortness of breath during exercise but whose pulmonologists and cardiologists could find no clear cause,” said Weinberger.
At one point, it dawned on Weinberger that these patients might have a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of their hearts. The hole would allow oxygen-depleted blood on its way to the lungs to cross over, or “short circuit,” from one side of the heart to the other. It would then be pumped back to the body without first picking up a fresh supply of oxygen in the lungs. The lack of oxygen in the blood would cause shortness of breath and decreased energy. Because this short circuit may occur only during exercise, normal tests performed at rest did not detect it.
Weinberger figured how to detect this problem, and McKenzie was one of the first patients to use it. McKenzie got on a treadmill and ran as hard as he could until he was gasping for air. Weinberger then quickly injected saline water into McKenzie’s veins and looked at the saline solution moving through his heart with an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart similar to the ultrasounds used to look at a fetus inside a mother’s womb.
If there is a hole in the heart the saline echocardiogram clearly shows the oxygen-depleted blood and accompanying saline solution flowing through the hole to the other side of the heart, bypassing the lungs. That is exactly what Dr. Weinberger saw when he performed the test on McKenzie.
Shortly afterwards, McKenzie underwent a minimally invasive procedure to fix the condition. He felt better right away.
“Within half an hour I noticed a difference. I was no longer pressed for breath,” said McKenzie. “I didn’t have my chest cut open, and I was out of the hospital in just a day rather than six months.”
