Just a thoracic aorta dilation? no big deal?
Posted , 3 users are following.
I just had a CT scan of the chest. It turns out I have a thoracic aorta dilation of 3.5cm.
39 years old.
It seems that it is on the low end of dilation, but still a dilation. The doctor's office told me this and said "he'll check on it in two years".
Isn't this more serious than that? Shouldn't I be advised to do something to keep my blood pressure down? beta-blockers? avoid power-lifting or something? They didn't even want to schedule a follow-up appointment or tell me what is going on.
2 likes, 2 replies
timothy40679 jart5
Posted
It seems to me that keeping your blood pressure pretty low and avoiding any intense, strenuous exercise that would raise your blood pressure a lot would help keep it from progressing. I had 5.3cm aneurysm and dissection that required surgery and I'm on heavy bp meds and can only do mild aerobic exercise. My brother has a smaller aneurysm and was on bp meds even before his diagnosis. He has a strenuous job which includes heavy lifting and has been told to lay off the heavy lifting.
I get the feeling that a lot of doctors don't know anything about treating aneurysms. I recommend seeing a cardiologist for better treatment of your aneurysm. If he tells you that aneurysms are not within his speciality, find q different cardiologist. My cardiologist told me he knows nothing about aortic dissections so I'm doing my follow-up with my cardiothoracic surgeon.
Since the doctor can't tell how fast your aneurysm is growing, I would think that a follow up scan in a year would make sense. If it's growing slowly, then follow up scans could be less frequent.
I think that they usually don't operate on an aneurysm until it gets around 6cm or larger but mine dissected at 5.3cm.
Lifeisgood999 jart5
Posted
I agree with timothy40679. Be sure to get a good cardiologist and monitor closely.
We're all in this together. Praying you'll be fine.