What's a Cardiac MRA and distention study ?

[aussigal]

This is step 2 in getting me sorted and prepared to meet my FIXER !

so I reckon you've all had them .
whats involved ? I am having a "whole-body-scan MRA and distention study" and with a Clinical History of Marfan.
should I get a "driver" or can I do-it-myself?
they said it'll take about 1 1/2 hours (translation about $1500 bucks )thankfully it'll cost me about $100 at the most (thanks to my insurance etc.)

there is nothing on this form to indicate it is a "cath" , even when you take into account how shocking doctors handwriting is

from what I understand they are looking everywhere for any other aneurysms or problems and measuring something as well.

thanks in advance

hope your Monday is as sunny as ours was

 

[Ross]

http://www.veithsymposium.org/prgm/pdfs/Friday_PDFs/Veith-Ascher2.pdf

This should give you an idea.

 

[aussigal]

oh boy...

now i'm totally confused...

It didnt seem to answer my question.

all i know is it a scan/study that is enhanced with gandolium (sp) contrast and shows up all the veins and stuff ...

wanna try explaing again pretty-please ?

 

[Ross]

You get all purty see and they lay you out on the scanner table see and then they fill you full nuclear peptides and watch your purtiness glow on their monitor see. Much like a catscan with contrast only a lot more resolute.

 

[PJmomrunner]

It's a regular MRI except they squirt you full of that glow juice so they can see where the inside ends and the outside begins. (The blood in the artery is glowing and the artery itself is not, so they can see difference, e. g. contrast.) You know how Ross keeps begging for the swimsuit pix so he can see your bulges (the purty kind, he might say)? Well, the MRA will show your not-so-pretty bulges-- I think the things they look for with MFS are aneurysms and dural ectasia (a bulging of the dura, which I believe is some kind of encasing of the spinal column.)

 

[aussigal]

AHA ! ...the glowy-juice one in the MRI

how can they measure distention from that ?
or do you reckon he is calling a 'no-so-purty bulge' a distention ?

 

[PJmomrunner]

Yeah, I'm purely guessing that he's calling a search for anything "bulging" a distention. Of course, I could be completely off-base.

 

[aussigal]

mmm...me too..he also mentioned something about measuring the vein pressures!?

 

[tobagotwo]

He might be testing how elastic your veins are. KimC had a test of that nature done for a totally different reason. It involves measuring the reflected waves of sound pulses rebounding off the vein walls to determine their relative stiffness. That test doesn't exactly measure pressure primarily, but might be germaine to your testing.

As far as the rest, it sounds like you'll have a really accurate suimmation of where you stand now, and what you might have to watch out for. While it's no fun, it sounds very definitive, and at least you'll know, rather than just guess about unspecified concerns.

Best wishes,

 

[aussigal]

OK...now I know what it was ! ...
They took about 1 hour to scan my aorta all the way thru and measure it very-very accurately,...the technician actually pulled me aside afterwards and explained why it took sooo long !...

He also said this new Cardio I see now is a better choice , so that pleases me greatly...he said that DR.JJ (my cardio) sends all his patients to this facility to get their measurements done because they do the best most accurate ones...now I recall this other cardio telling me his measurements could be up to .5 out ...this guy says theirs are within .1 beacause of their expertise in the field...

EXPERTISE now thats what I needed from the start !...lol
so I had a really good test and it will take him a few days to read it properly and get results back to my cardio.

And thanks to the Tech. who cemented in my head that I have made the correct choice by switching doctors too, he deals with both the cardio's I have seen and agrees JJ is the better man for my situation.

And I saw my Pain Management Doc on Monday too and he is gonna do a procedure on my lower-back where its dodgy and he gave his seal-of-approval on the new cardio and surgeon as well...so YEP! I am flying high today with the knowledge I now have a really good team on my side, sure makes a difference from the whining me from a few-weeks ago ...dunno how long it'll last but I shall enjoy the moment


Thanks so much everyone for your continued support..I love you guys heaps


{{{{{{{{{{{BIG-HUGS}}}}}}}}}}

 

[Ross]

Stop teasing me.

 

[aussigal]

Gees what am I going to have to do to placate you Ross!? I've got my eye on you !