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"Aneurysm Thoracic Aortic Without Rupture"?
Aortic Aneurysms | Last Active: Dec 19, 2022 | Replies (23)Comment receiving replies
I’m 56 and was diagnosed with a 4.5cm Ascending aortic aneurysm a year ago. I lost a neighbor suddenly due to aortic dissection, so I took it on myself to get a CT scan. No symptoms and without the blessing of my insurance co. The rest of my heart is in pretty good shape. Shortly after diagnosis, I retired and made significant changes to my diet and stopped lifting completely. It’s been a year and I went into my follow up CT Scan last week convinced the best result would have been an increase of 2 mm because I didn’t believe I’d done enough to improve my exercise or even my diet. My primary started me on 25 mg of Lasorton, but since my BP wasn’t averaging below 115/80, I pushed to get it increased to 50, then eventually 100mg. Surprisingly enough, my follow up scan showed NO change in size with my aneurysm! I was initially thrilled! Like you though, I wondered if my yearly scans would continue. Can you share your age and aneurysm size please?
Replies to "I’m 56 and was diagnosed with a 4.5cm Ascending aortic aneurysm a year ago. I lost..."
Stopped lifting? Many athletes have a slightly larger number than the average couch Potatoe. I would watch the medication, many of the doctors over medicate. Make sure you know the lone term/short term side effects and their interactions with other medications of all the medication you take. I'm on my third cardiologist. Two of them overdosed me with a low-flow TIA. There are many natural supplements that will help with BP. The FDA just approved magnesium for hypertension.
You should push to have your yearly scans continued. These ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms tend to grow slowly but they DO grow; unless you die of something else, the probability is very high that you will need surgery in the future. Literature from the Cleveland Clinic indicate they grow about .07 cm a year but the range varies. It is not wise to discontinue scans.
That said, Losartan at 100 mg is good. We could not keep my husband's blood pressure under 120/80 when he was taking 50 mg twice a day plus a low dose beta blocker (25 mg). The 25 and 50 mg are short acting. The 100 mg will last 24 hours. I found this information in an article on PUBMED. When I mentioned this to my husband's primary care doctor, he looked at me with his eyes wide and said: "I never thought of that but, of course, the kinetics make sense."
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You might want to ask your physician about a beta blocker. My thoracic surgeon explained the difference between the bp medication and a beta blocker. The bp medication softens the blood vessels, like way you finger on a water hose can increase or decrease the pressure of the water flowing out. The beta blocker lessens the flow of the water, like turning down the amount of water with the faucet control. With the beta blocker your heart rate slows. Now when I exercise my heart rate just doesn't get as high. That's less pressure on the aorta.