Aa
chest pains
I have some questions about chest pains that I have occasionally. I am 27, 5'11. 130lbs. I have some features of Marfans, but ekgs, echocardiogram, and chest xrays show nothing wrong with my heart. I have occasional chest pains. MY question is, do chest x-rays and echocradiogram give a full picture of the aorta? Since they were normal, can I rest easy? Are these just angina or anxiety pains? How far up in the chest cavity does the aorta go?
Firstly, if there was any concern with the aorta, your heart would have revealed this during the echocardiogram because there would be considerable back pressure. A chest xray doesn't show the aorta. Can you describe the pains you are getting and when you get them? The aorta basically starts to curve downwards as soon as it leaves the heart and goes down towards the admomen to feed the lower body. The top of the curve has large arteries attached to feed the upper body.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Aorta.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Aorta.jpg
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