Newly Diagnosed: 4.9 cm ascending aortic looking for support

@kamvenk i am 10 days post op ascending aortic aneurysm repair with a healtthy bicuspid aortic valve . Surgery done at OHSU portland oregon. All went well! Now at home recovering.. goal is to return to my active lifestyle!

@cchowdy you have the same thing I do by cuspid valves only like 2% of the population has those. And then a few months ago I found out I have a 4.6 ascending thoracic aortic aneurysm TAA I was wondering how yours is today

@midnightwolf Hi Ann, I'd look at it this way...when my aneurysm was at 3,8cm like yours is, I was blissfully ignorant.. out running, climbing mountains, doing crossfit and working a stressful job. The docs have enough experience with these aneurysms that they don't worry until it exceeds 5cm. What you need to do is see how fast the aneurysm is growing... get another echo in 6 months and see how it changed (if at all). That will help you estimate when it is time for surgery which is likely a long way off! Meanwhile, stay in shape and do not fret this.

I was recently made aware of The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health. There is a wealth of information provided by the foundation on it’s website. I hope others will find it useful, too. For more information click on the following link: https://johnritterfoundation.org/

@mikeneverwired

"out running, climbing mountains, doing crossfit "

Recent research is starting to show that a slightly enlarged aorta may be a healthy adaptation to a lot of endurance type activities. It has been known for some time that long time endurance athletes have heart characteristics that would be judged to be indicators of disease in sedentary normals but are actually benign or healthy in heavy exercisers. eg enlarged heart , higher calcium scores, very low resting heart rates etc. I vividly remember a nurse getting concerned that my resting heart rate was in the low forties as a result of my marathon training.
20 years ago , when i was 48, a ct scan showed my ascending at 4 cm. No one, including me, batted an eyelid. Ignorance is bliss and I continued on my merry long distance running way. A year ago my newly acquired cardiologist ordered an echo that showed it at 4.2. He was more upset about this than I am but I figured a 2mm growth in 20 years is not much to worry about. When I mentioned about the recent research he just sort of dismissed it.
That makes no sense. If the heart positively adapts why not the supply chain to and from it. After all it is living tissue also.

@mimiz In 2003, John Ritter — beloved actor, husband, father, and friend — died suddenly due to a misdiagnosed thoracic aortic dissection.

John Ritter had actually been advised that his aorta was dangerously dilated long before the actual dissection. Repair was advised but he said he felt fine, ignored the recommendation and went on his merry way. The emergency room that received him had no idea of this previous diagnosis and even if they did the odds that his life could have been saved were very low...about 7% or so.

@fmulhare Well, my aneurysm was 5.3-5.4cm when I was first diagnosed so surgery made sense for me. Since I had stayed in shape my entire life, I too was curious as to whether there might be studies showing that athletes have abnormally large aortic roots but I only found 1 paper on the matter at the time (a couple years ago now). If there are new studies out there, could you please post a link as I think the audience here would benefit from this information...
Thanks!