Would a regular echo show...

[jjfreak]

I am sorry this is probably a dumb question. Recently I have been worrying about having a thoracic aortic aneurysm, and I am posting here because it gets more looks than the aneurysm board, and people have knowledge about echos in here. The reason I am worried is I have been getting a pain/weird feeling between my shoulder blades. It is very mild, and not something that stops me from doing anything I want to (other than worrying me to the point that I have an aneurysm and it is gonna burst at anytime).

I was just wondering if a standard echo would show the size of the aorta in the chest / aortic root? I had one a couple of months ago, and they said everything was fine, but I am not sure if they were looking at the aortas size or not. And if it does show and was fine is there a chance it could have developed, and enlarged to the point of symptoms already? I know most aneurysms are asymptomatic until they are getting large or leaking. I have a hard time believing if everything was normal a couple of months ago that it would shoot to the large size to cause symptoms that soon. I know a CT or MRI would be the best thing for me to determine this, but I am at the limit for my insurance for the year.

Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and have a great Thanksgiving!

[jjfreak]

It helps greatly. Thank you. I have not experienced any trauma, and I didn't think it was likely to go from normal to problematic in 2 months either.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

[erijon]

Yes, any abnormality of your aortic root would have shown on a echo. I also do not think one could go from normal to problematic in only 2 months unless it was caused by trauma. In some cases of sever trauma the lining of the aorta can separate causing an aneurysm but you would be very symptomatic.

Hope this helps, happy Thanksgiving!

Jon