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Newly Diagnosed TAA 4.3 CM
Hello All, I have responded to some posts on here but thought I would introduce myself. This group has been very helpful!
I recently turned 60 and went for a CT Scan to see if there were any calcifications around my heart on July 12. I have high cholesterol; mainly LDL. I had ZERO calcifications which is good, but they found this Ascending aortic aneurysm. 4.3 cm. In reading all these posts this seems to be more common than I thought. The scan also showed a pulmonary nodule and recommend dedicated CT angiogram of the thoracic aorta and the pulmonary parenchyma (whatever that is) could also be assessed for additional pulmonary nodules.
I have finally gotten an appointment with a cardiologist on August 6.
Hopefully I will get some peace of mind when i have my appointment. Has anyone else gone through the angiogram test?
I'm southern Florida/Naples area and if anyone has any recommendations for a surgeon, I'd love to know. Thank you all.
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Welcome! If you are like most of us, this was a scary thing to hear and it'll take a while for that to set in and settle, if it ever does. The good news is you are OK and can live a mostly normal life with a 4.3. I don't know much about the pulmonary nodules I hope those are easily dealt with! Fingers crossed! I was 45 when they found my aortic aneurysm at a 4.3 with a bicuspid aortic valve. I did have to lower thw amount of weight I could lift and watch my maximum heart rate and blood pressure. You will probably receive similar direction from your Dr as well as get that cholesterol down! 🙂 Surgery usually isn't in the cards until it gets to a 5.0 or 5.5 depending on your factors. You will start getting regular scans though to see how fast it grows from that 4.3, if at all. You are still young in terms of the age for surgery for this so if it gets there don't worry it's like a 96% success rate. IF you do get to that point, I have heard good things about Dr Joseph Lamelas in Miami. He did the valve replacement and aa repair on a friend. Good luck!
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7 ReactionsThank you @malcorozan
I saw my cardiologist this morning 8/6 Tuesday, and he confirmed it's a watch and wait period. BUT, he did put me on blood pressure medicine and I need to monitor that.
Also have another CT scan/angiogram scheduled for this Friday. This is the one with the die so they can get a better look and also a Echo scheduled too.
Take it from there. I appreciate your response. 🙂