Hello everyone,
I want to share a bit of my story, hoping not to bore you or go on too long.
My name is Sergio, I'm 44 years old, turning 45 next month, and I live in Madrid, Spain (EU). Professionally, I'm a filmmaker.
I was diagnosed with BAV by chance during a routine driver's license renewal exam when I was 30 years old. Without dwelling too much on the shock I experienced, I've been undergoing annual check-ups since then. Initially, the dimensions were about 3.6 cm for the ascending aorta and 4 cm for the aortic root (Valsalva sinus), starting from 2014 the echo follow up. In the following years, I was in complete denial and had a destructive lifestyle with alcohol, drugs, and smoking, but I continued to take my chronic medication (Congescor 1.25mg and Atorvastatin 10mg). I'm not sure if these medications are used in the United States or what their names are there. Over time, since 2019, in addition to the annual echocardiograms, they started doing CT to get more accurate measurements. Thankfully, the tubular aorta is normal, as is the mitral valve, and there are no signs (up to 2022) of aortic stenosis. The dilation has been progressive but more or less controlled, I believe. Reading about it, there are people who had to undergo surgery much earlier. The last CT scan was in 2022 (I will leave the detailed report at the bottom of the post).
I'm more frightened by the aortic root at 46mm than the ascending aorta at 42mm (although the scan states that there have been no changes since the last visit).
Here, I'd like to ask for your opinion: do they take into account a one or two mm margin of error, calculating things that we, or at least I, being not a doctor, do not know? For example, during the last CT scan, I was almost in total panic, and they recorded a heart rate of 122 bpm during the scan. Could this influence the measurement of the aortic root by a few mm?
Another doubt I have is how is it possible that in 2019 the CT scan indicated that the Valsalva sinuses were 45mm, then in 2020 42mm, and finally in 2022 46mm with "no changes retrospectively about last scan" written in the report? This confuses me a lot.
The aortic root has never been mentioned to me; it seems that the focus is all on the ascending aorta.
When I asked the cardiologist when and if they think about operating on me in the future, he simply said that for now, monitoring is necessary and that you never know. He gave me an example of a car driving on a road at night and how it might not encounter any obstacles by driving cautiously, but then a car might come up behind unexpectedly – a somewhat convoluted example that I don't remember well but that I understood at the time.
My hope is that I can live my whole life without surgery. I'm scared to death, especially because in the last year and a half, I've been doing sports that I've never done before.
I swim four times a week. I swim for an hour straight with only two short breaks for catching my breath.
I don't feel tired anymore; I'm in shape. I weighed 87kg and I'm 1.80m tall, and now I weigh 68.3kg and I'm fit.
It makes me angry; just now that I've completely changed my life, I'm afraid of losing everything, of not being able to do sports like now, of not being the same if I have to undergo surgery.
I've always been rebellious and reckless. I've been sober for five years thanks to AA; I eat well, I haven't smoked for two years (I vape with low nicotine levels). As I mentioned above, I was in a state of absolute denial; I didn't want to inform myself well about everything, I just took the medication thinking it was a congenital defect and that it wasn't serious.
On the other hand, I hope and dream that the time for surgery never comes, also because it has never been mentioned, but it has been mentioned that the dilation of a BAV can be stable or it can progress rapidly from one year to the next, hence the importance of keeping it monitored.
I'll leave you with the latest data from the 2022 CT scan. My next appointment is on July 8th (I always take a 1mg lorazepam pill before the exam, but even so, it's not enough to calm me down).
Any experience and advice are welcome. I hope you can understand my report despite the language difference, i translate everything witch chat gpt![Face with open eyes and hand over mouth :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: 🫢](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1fae2.png)
Heart Rate: 120 bpm
Total IV Contrast: 100 cc
Study Quality: Good
Previous Study: 15/7/2020
CORONARY ARTERIES
Dominance: Right
Coronary Anatomy: Normal
Study not focused on coronary artery assessment. Coronary arteries not assessable due to cardiac motion artifacts.
Cardiac Findings: NoneExtracardiac Thoracic Findings: Nodular thyroid
Bicuspid Aortic Valve with fusion between right and left coronary sinuses
AORTA
The following measurements and characteristics of the thoracic aorta are observed:
Valvular plane: 24 mm
Sinuses of Valsalva: 46 mm (retrospectively, unchanged)
Sinotubular junction: 36 mm
Ascending aorta: 42 mm (previous 41 mm)
Pre TSA exit: 33 mm
Post TSA exit: 24 mm
Descending aorta: 22 mm
TSA: no alterations
The following measurements are observed in the abdominal aorta:
Suprarenal abdominal aorta: 20 mm
Infrarenal abdominal aorta: 15 mm
Mild infrarenal aortic atheromatosis.
Other intra-abdominal findings: none
I want to share a bit of my story, hoping not to bore you or go on too long.
My name is Sergio, I'm 44 years old, turning 45 next month, and I live in Madrid, Spain (EU). Professionally, I'm a filmmaker.
I was diagnosed with BAV by chance during a routine driver's license renewal exam when I was 30 years old. Without dwelling too much on the shock I experienced, I've been undergoing annual check-ups since then. Initially, the dimensions were about 3.6 cm for the ascending aorta and 4 cm for the aortic root (Valsalva sinus), starting from 2014 the echo follow up. In the following years, I was in complete denial and had a destructive lifestyle with alcohol, drugs, and smoking, but I continued to take my chronic medication (Congescor 1.25mg and Atorvastatin 10mg). I'm not sure if these medications are used in the United States or what their names are there. Over time, since 2019, in addition to the annual echocardiograms, they started doing CT to get more accurate measurements. Thankfully, the tubular aorta is normal, as is the mitral valve, and there are no signs (up to 2022) of aortic stenosis. The dilation has been progressive but more or less controlled, I believe. Reading about it, there are people who had to undergo surgery much earlier. The last CT scan was in 2022 (I will leave the detailed report at the bottom of the post).
I'm more frightened by the aortic root at 46mm than the ascending aorta at 42mm (although the scan states that there have been no changes since the last visit).
Here, I'd like to ask for your opinion: do they take into account a one or two mm margin of error, calculating things that we, or at least I, being not a doctor, do not know? For example, during the last CT scan, I was almost in total panic, and they recorded a heart rate of 122 bpm during the scan. Could this influence the measurement of the aortic root by a few mm?
Another doubt I have is how is it possible that in 2019 the CT scan indicated that the Valsalva sinuses were 45mm, then in 2020 42mm, and finally in 2022 46mm with "no changes retrospectively about last scan" written in the report? This confuses me a lot.
The aortic root has never been mentioned to me; it seems that the focus is all on the ascending aorta.
When I asked the cardiologist when and if they think about operating on me in the future, he simply said that for now, monitoring is necessary and that you never know. He gave me an example of a car driving on a road at night and how it might not encounter any obstacles by driving cautiously, but then a car might come up behind unexpectedly – a somewhat convoluted example that I don't remember well but that I understood at the time.
My hope is that I can live my whole life without surgery. I'm scared to death, especially because in the last year and a half, I've been doing sports that I've never done before.
I swim four times a week. I swim for an hour straight with only two short breaks for catching my breath.
I don't feel tired anymore; I'm in shape. I weighed 87kg and I'm 1.80m tall, and now I weigh 68.3kg and I'm fit.
It makes me angry; just now that I've completely changed my life, I'm afraid of losing everything, of not being able to do sports like now, of not being the same if I have to undergo surgery.
I've always been rebellious and reckless. I've been sober for five years thanks to AA; I eat well, I haven't smoked for two years (I vape with low nicotine levels). As I mentioned above, I was in a state of absolute denial; I didn't want to inform myself well about everything, I just took the medication thinking it was a congenital defect and that it wasn't serious.
On the other hand, I hope and dream that the time for surgery never comes, also because it has never been mentioned, but it has been mentioned that the dilation of a BAV can be stable or it can progress rapidly from one year to the next, hence the importance of keeping it monitored.
I'll leave you with the latest data from the 2022 CT scan. My next appointment is on July 8th (I always take a 1mg lorazepam pill before the exam, but even so, it's not enough to calm me down).
Any experience and advice are welcome. I hope you can understand my report despite the language difference, i translate everything witch chat gpt
![Face with open eyes and hand over mouth :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth: 🫢](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1fae2.png)
Heart Rate: 120 bpm
Total IV Contrast: 100 cc
Study Quality: Good
Previous Study: 15/7/2020
CORONARY ARTERIES
Dominance: Right
Coronary Anatomy: Normal
Study not focused on coronary artery assessment. Coronary arteries not assessable due to cardiac motion artifacts.
Cardiac Findings: NoneExtracardiac Thoracic Findings: Nodular thyroid
Bicuspid Aortic Valve with fusion between right and left coronary sinuses
AORTA
The following measurements and characteristics of the thoracic aorta are observed:
Valvular plane: 24 mm
Sinuses of Valsalva: 46 mm (retrospectively, unchanged)
Sinotubular junction: 36 mm
Ascending aorta: 42 mm (previous 41 mm)
Pre TSA exit: 33 mm
Post TSA exit: 24 mm
Descending aorta: 22 mm
TSA: no alterations
The following measurements are observed in the abdominal aorta:
Suprarenal abdominal aorta: 20 mm
Infrarenal abdominal aorta: 15 mm
Mild infrarenal aortic atheromatosis.
Other intra-abdominal findings: none
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