since december 2024 they incidentally found a 5.8 brain aneurysm. then found i have fibro muscular dysplasia in my carotoids. Since I had a choice I opted to wait and in 2 days will have another mra a year later to compare.
my 2nd opinion dr wanted to do a cerebral angiogram, but I wasn’t sure if that enters my carotoids so I opted to wait on that also.
I have so many questions not quite answered. and besides my severe headaches which they think are not related, I am fine.
Does anyone know about the cerebral angiogram ? Also if they put any catheter in I’m afraid to put it through my carotoids.
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Hi there! So, I had a 4mm anterior communicating artery unruptured aneurysm - they didn’t think it would cause me severe headaches even headaches; however, since having the seal-it web device - I have not had anymore headaches for about a year now.
I actually go for my cerebral follow up angiogram in a few weeks. They ended up going through my groin. I guess they said I don’t have a great vascular system. I would assume it does go through the carotid just because they found a small dissection in mine during the procedure.
I am curious, how did they find out you have FMD in your carotid? Was there certain testing?
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The ct angiogram showed fmd in my carotoids
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Hi @sunnyg1590 -
So glad to hear from you!
I had an aneurysm on my left PICA, so admittedly it is a rare spot for an aneurysm. That being said, I have had several angiograms as part of my journey so I am happy to help answer whatever questions you might have had.
If you haven’t had one/seen already, the Cleveland Clinic has a page on Cerebral Angiograms that talks about the procedure generally. My guess (from a non-medical, patient perspective) is that your doctors would want to see your aneurysm, hence the idea of doing the angiogram. I imagine it depends on where your aneurysm is located as to how they would get there. (E.g., the Stroke Foundation in Australia has a nice (simple) image of the arteries.
Please let us know what we can do to support you!!
Fin Whale Fan 
Ive had mri, mra, ct angiogram after they 1st found it last year. Now tomorrow is an mra followup 1 year later.
Im afraid of the cerebral angiogram since they found my carotoids have rare fibro muscular dysplasia.
I found this that explains it really well https://youtu.be/JJyf2lvB-Ps?si=NJBlb9tBJWoRyU_T when the surgeon is using the femoral artery. It’s very similar to the radial artery as the catheter will be taken to external carotid and then to the internal carotid. My arteries are all tortuous (squiggly) and I’ve not had any major problems with the catheter getting into my brain and back out. I did have a pretty decent sized hematoma due to the Resident not putting enough pressure on the plug resulting in my surgeon doing a handstand on it. That’s a slight exaggeration but I don’t know what else to call it when someone pushes hard enough they’re on their tiptoes.
Does that mean you have fmd in carotoids too? Well now my insurance messed up my scheduled mra for tomorrow and my neurosurgeon dont taj
Ke my insurance so im beside myself