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Question about 3.8 ascending aorta dilaton

I had an echo in 11/2014 because of an arrhythmia caused by low potassium.  I had some mild heart issues but my aorta was normal.  On 3/2019 I had another echo and they found I have a 3.8 ascending aorta dilation.  Does this seem like it is growing quickly?  I am having another echo in a couple of weeks and I'm freaking out, mostly because the doctor never even told me that I had this when they did the echo.  He just said I had mild issues with my heart.  But when I was in the office this week he mentioned they want to keep an eye on the aorta.  That's when I looked into it and thought this sounds really serious.   My cardiologist got the report yesterday and said that "monitor it to make sure it's not getting bigger but generally it needs to be 5 cm or greater before there will be intervention.  I have had bp issues for at least 30 years but it is well under control with enalapril and metoprolol.
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Avatar universal
Hi, how did you end up going with follow up appointments etc? Ive just been told from my cardiologist my ascending aorta is slightly enlarged 3.8cm too but he said i dont need to worry. Now i am worrying because I had a echocardiogram 2 years ago and nothing was mentioned.
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Avatar universal
If further evaluation desired, CTA or MRA chest would be able to provide more accurate measurements.
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Avatar universal
It depends which portion of the aorta is being measured; for example, aortic root at level of sinuses of Valsalva, aortic root at level of sinotubular junction, or ascending aorta of level of pulmonary arteries. In general, an ascending thoracic aorta of 3.8 cm is top normal/ectatic, 4-5 cm is dilated, and greater than 5 cm is aneurysmal, although the exact cutoffs vary depending on the source used. Overall, this does not sound serious and can probably just be monitored with routine surveillance.
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Thank you so much.  I will find out soon.  I can't believe he would have not told me about this last year if it were more serious.  He's not acting concerned.  But I am.  Thanks again and I will talk about it more in March.  Hopefully there won't be much of a change and if so I will ask about the other tests as the others have recommended.
What concerns me is that I had a normal aorta result in Nov. 2014 and then in Mar. 2019 it was 3.8 and he set me up for a one year follow up (which is coming up on Mar. 16).  I was in a CrossFit class for 6 months in 2016/2017 and I was lifting heavy items and felt I was exercising beyond my comfort level.  Do you think those 6 months could have started or increased the dilation?  My b/p went up during that time and I increased my meds and dropped out of CrossFit.
Avatar universal
They should probably image using mri as its less user depent and has less variation.
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