Small caliber basilar artery.

Posted by adah @adah, Feb 20, 2019

Does anyone know what this means? Found on mra of brain.

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Hi, @adah - as I understand from what you posted, your doctor ordered an MRI of your brain (I'm assuming that this is your personal situation) and found a small-caliber basilar artery? Was this something that your doctor explained in a consult after your MRI, or something you read in online lab reports in a patient portal? If in person, was this finding defined for you, or not yet?

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@lisalucier

Hi, @adah - as I understand from what you posted, your doctor ordered an MRI of your brain (I'm assuming that this is your personal situation) and found a small-caliber basilar artery? Was this something that your doctor explained in a consult after your MRI, or something you read in online lab reports in a patient portal? If in person, was this finding defined for you, or not yet?

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Nothing was defined, it was just in my chart they didn’t even mention it. Do you know anything about it?

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@adah

Nothing was defined, it was just in my chart they didn’t even mention it. Do you know anything about it?

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@adah - I don't happen to be familiar with small-caliber basilar artery, but I'm guessing that perhaps @jenniferhunter or @johnbishop may know something about it or be able to point to some research about it.

Will you be meeting with your doctor, during which you might ask about what this is and any implications for you? If you have no appointment set up, can you message your doctor or call his or her office to enquire? How did you come to be having an MRI?

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@adah From what I found when I looked this up, it sounds like having a small caliber basilar artery is good news. It is something they measure on brain MRIs in relation to strokes, and if this artery is distended or elongated, it increases the risk of stroke. and also can cause hydrocephalus or "water on the brain". Most of the literature I found talks about cases where the blood pressure was very high over 200 for the top number which is stroke territory for blood pressure. The top number is the pressure during the heart beat contraction, and the lower bottom number is the pressure in-between heart beats or the resting pressure. I'm presuming that the excessively high blood pressure can change this artery and stretch it out, which is related to a stroke that can occur. Here is some of the literature I found that talked about this. Of course, you need a trained medical opinion about what this means for you specifically, and I can't provide that, but I hope this helps with an understanding of what the terminology means.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.STR.0000236058.57880.03
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3981198/

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@jenniferhunter

@adah From what I found when I looked this up, it sounds like having a small caliber basilar artery is good news. It is something they measure on brain MRIs in relation to strokes, and if this artery is distended or elongated, it increases the risk of stroke. and also can cause hydrocephalus or "water on the brain". Most of the literature I found talks about cases where the blood pressure was very high over 200 for the top number which is stroke territory for blood pressure. The top number is the pressure during the heart beat contraction, and the lower bottom number is the pressure in-between heart beats or the resting pressure. I'm presuming that the excessively high blood pressure can change this artery and stretch it out, which is related to a stroke that can occur. Here is some of the literature I found that talked about this. Of course, you need a trained medical opinion about what this means for you specifically, and I can't provide that, but I hope this helps with an understanding of what the terminology means.

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.STR.0000236058.57880.03
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123011/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3981198/

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Thanks so much for the info.

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