question about aneurysm size

[Lauberth]

Hello all! and thank you for this wonderful forum and your support!

My medical report says that the dimensions of my ascending aortic dilation are 4.2 x 4.1 cm. My question is why does it give me two numbers?,...I thought it measured only one number or at least everyone here always talks about one number not two. so is it 4.2 or 4.1??...As you can tell im a little confused. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks!

 

[chaconne]

I've usually seen just one number representing this. Could one of them be the length of the bulge along the aorta? The numbers are pretty close so if it's just the longest x shortest cross section width I'd just call it a 4.15. Also, these measurements probably have an error of greater than the difference between those numbers if done by echo.

 

[AZ Don]

Normally it is just one number, the largest, but two numbers could mean a range, because even the CT tests may not be accurate to 1mm. Could be that they measured one direction and then another, or could even be two aneurysms. That's what I had, two separate aneurysms, one in my root and the other in my ascending aorta.

In any case I think the only number that matters is the largest. Did you see the recent report of an aneurysm that stopped growing the year that Losartan was started: http://www.valvereplacement.org/for...ful-or-hurtful&p=550190&highlight=#post550190

It's only one test and the echo is not terribly accurate but it is encouraging.

 

[Agian]

I think some echos give a number for the aortic root and one for the ascending aorta. I doubt they would report it as "4.2 x 4.1 cm" though.

 

[chaconne]

Either way, I don't think you need immediate surgery for a 4.2, depending on if other conditions are fine as well (EF, BP, AI or AS...), but I would think they would be monitoring it regularly.