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Question:
Could my father’s aneurysm be related to his lung infection?
My father is 77 years old and was diagnosed with arrhythmia in 2005 (which is under control with medication and he is also on blood thinners). He was recently found to have ascending aortic aneurysm (7.6 cm). It was an incidental finding on EKG (later confirmed on CT angiogram) when he was admitted to hospital with pneumonia in Feb. 2013. An EKG done few months back was normal. Could this aneurysm be related to the lung infection? Thanks.
submitted by Hema from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 3/6/2013
Answer:
by Texas Heart Institute cardiologist, George Younis, MD
No, aneurysms generally could not be the result of lung infection, nor can they be detected by EKG.
It is more likely the aneurysm was found incidentally on chest x-ray or echocardiogram. An echocardiogram can show suspicion of an aneurysm but may in some circumstances be difficult to appreciate, which could explain why it was seen now and not a few months ago. But an EKG does not give any information about the aorta.
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Updated March 2013
