The aorta is the largest artery in your body and over time, factors such as obesity, smoking, and high blood pressure can weaken its walls. This ballooning or bulging is known as an abdominal aortic disease known as abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), and failure to treat it can have deadly consequences.
What Causes AAA?
Just like a car gains mileage and starts to break down, so can your aorta begin to weaken in areas. Factors that affect your arteries, such as atherosclerosis (hardening of your arteries), hypertension (high blood pressure), and obesity can cause weak spots. Over time, these weak areas begin to bulge outwards and eventually can burst.
Symptoms of AAA
Only 10 percent of the 2 million Americans with AAA are diagnosed prior to rupture. This is chiefly because there are very few symptoms associated with AAA. However, problems such as stomach, chest, and back pain may be indicators.
How Is AAA Diagnosed?
Physicians often diagnose AAA while performing other imaging scans, such as an exam testing for aneurysms. AAA can be detected through a variety of imaging procedures, such as computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging scan, ultrasound, cardiac catheterization and arteriogram.
Treatment Options for Early Diagnosis
Dependent upon the size of the AAA and the age of the patient, AAA may be treated through conservative methods or surgery, in more severe cases. AAAs that are small in size or not growing rapidly can be treated using beta blockers, which help to reduce the pressure on the aorta's wall.
If the AAA is larger than 5 to 6 centimeters (roughly the size of an egg), a surgeon may repair or replace the damaged portion with a stent graft made of synthetic materials. Recent innovations in medicine have enabled surgeons to utilize minimally invasive approaches to treatment, such as through the insertion of a catheter.
Treatment Options for Rupture
When a AAA ruptures, this occurrence can block blood flow to the stomach or legs as well as cause massive bleeding with potentially fatal consequences. Once ruptured, an AAA can cause death within minutes. In order to treat the rupture, a surgeon must work to stop the bleeding and restore blood flow to the lower extremities. Surgeons typically employ a surgical approach known as endovascular repair to create a new channel for blood flow, allowing the surgeon to repair the ruptured portion.
Prevention Tips
Because many of the risk factors of AAA are related to lifestyle choices, leading a healthy lifestyle by refraining from smoking, watching what you eat, and exercising regularly are the best methods of prevention. If you have some of the risk factors related to AAA, you may want to ask your doctor if you could benefit from a screening exam.
Tags: blood flow, abdominal aortic, blood pressure, factors related, high blood