What is bad? How large would cause you to not race? How common in endurance athletes?
hmmm… I am actually considering doing a study on this. This is what Norman Stadler had and ended up with a surgery.
it really depends on a bunch of factors, and being under a care of a cardiologist is best. What area of the country are you in?
how were you diagnosed?
South New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. I had an EKG at routine physical. The GP saw LVH and ordered an Echocardiogram. Only slight LVH, but, she noe thinks the EKG was actually abnormal due to Aortic Root enlargement. She said it was 40mm. Said not to stop any training or racing and she will consult with her resident cardiologist on Monday. She says most likely related to being a triathlete. I’m not so sure and thinking its time to dial back and retire from racing (all short course sprint and only).
53 years old. Racing multisport since 1992. No symptoms. BP fine. Bloodwork great.
she has no clue why this happened. give me a break. no one does. could be anything. can’t stand it when docs state stuff like this,
I would get a couple of other tests. I’ll PM you later on someone who would be familiar with this in your area.
Normal is up to 37mm, so 40 is really not bad. Nowhere near where you would need surgery. Agree with the other poster that there is no way to know if this is related to anything you have done, and I would not presume it is due to training or that it is the cause of LVH on your EKG. If you have no other issues and were sent to me in the office I would probably order a follow-up echo yearly but not expect you to ever have a problem.
I’m still concerned about continuing to race sprints with my hair on fire!
South New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. I had an EKG at routine physical. The GP saw LVH and ordered an Echocardiogram. Only slight LVH, but, she noe thinks the EKG was actually abnormal due to Aortic Root enlargement. She said it was 40mm. Said not to stop any training or racing and she will consult with her resident cardiologist on Monday. She says most likely related to being a triathlete. I’m not so sure and thinking its time to dial back and retire from racing (all short course sprint and only).
53 years old. Racing multisport since 1992. No symptoms. BP fine. Bloodwork great.
Sounds like she is being diligent and considerate of your lifestyle. I would see what cardiology has to say about it. 40mm is not huge, but if they have that baseline and follow it annually, then I wouldn’t get terribly concerned in light of no symptoms and good numbers.
South New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia. I had an EKG at routine physical. The GP saw LVH and ordered an Echocardiogram. Only slight LVH, but, she noe thinks the EKG was actually abnormal due to Aortic Root enlargement. She said it was 40mm. Said not to stop any training or racing and she will consult with her resident cardiologist on Monday. She says most likely related to being a triathlete. I’m not so sure and thinking its time to dial back and retire from racing (all short course sprint and only).
53 years old. Racing multisport since 1992. No symptoms. BP fine. Bloodwork great.
Good judgment to get the cardiologist involved, but aortic root enlargement from being a triathlete? Um…
marfans?
He’d know
If he had marfans by now
.
I’ve been reading all over the internet about this and can’t come to any real consensus on what the cause might be. The Dr. did indicated, since I asked her directly, that there was no evidence of any Aneurysm and the valves (all of them) were perfect. So, not sure what’s really going on. More importantly, not sure what implications there are for continued exercise, training and racing at maxed out, or, high intensity levels.
Someone else mentioned Marfans. Extremely unlikely as I’m 5’8" and don’t exibit any signs of that.
After sleeping on it (not much) I think I’m going to call the office and just tell her I want to see the cardiologist myself otherwise I’ll drive myself crazy.
how? a lot of people find out as they fall to the floor dead
Thanks for that!!!
So, from the posts here (I’m not using Dr. Internet as I’m setting an appointment up with the cardiologist today), I may just be screwed here with no fault of my own.
I will also discuss BP medicine as a precaution. Looks like there may be a really nice new Slice and some power training equipment for sale in the classifieds soon 
I gave you a legit answer. Why post the question here if you are just going to worry and ignore good information when you get it. Your barely enlarged aortic root is not something to worry over. Keep pushing for more tests and your doctors will order more tests. Maybe next you’ll get a CTA and find out you have some incidentaloma. What then? HTFU.
Sorry, you did give good advice and a good answer, and, I certainly didn’t discout it. I didn’t mean to offend you and I should just probably stop reading about it. I’m not pushing for more tests, just want to talk with the cardio first hand.
I’ll let it rest now… and, HTFU.
What the hell else am I going to talk about? Lance racing? 
Would really like to hear what developed on this, as I was just diagnosed yesterday with a dilated aortic root (41mm) and am trying to navigate my way through the implacations for A. health (read “not die soon”) and B. training.
I am diagnosed with the same thing, an enlarged aortic root a 40mm through an echo. The interesting thing is that I am only 20 years old, however, I have been racing bikes and swimming completely since I was 5 so that maybe a factor.
However my doctor just told me to get annual check ups and continue with training and racing.
I have an enlarged Aortic Root BUT it was found because I was having symptoms due to other problems. I was getting dizzy and nearly passing out.
I had also both a damaged Valve and an Enlarged heart.
Due to the damage it was decided to replace my damaged valve with a mechanical valve. But, remember I had a number of other tests and problematic symptoms. I can’t recall the exact numbers at this time, but it is something they continuously measure when I have my Echo.
What I can tell you is that I would ask to see a Cardiologist and determine if there are any other related issues. Sure, all your other basic vitals are fine and you fluids look good, but do you know what your Ejection Fraction is? Do you have regurgitation, any other valve issues, any other enlarged areas, etc.? I saw 4 different heart specialists when working through my problems, I would suggest at least seeing someone.
Another thing I can tell you is that we are dealing with measurements made on a machine by humans. Even when I go to my Echo every year the doctor reminds me of the same thing. The tech could place a dot hear and another dot there and come up with one reading and then do it another time and get another reading. We are dealing in very small readings. But, I would check everything out to be safe.
What is bad? How large would cause you to not race? How common in endurance athletes?
I am assuming you have asked this question to a cardiothoracic surgeon first??? before asking the ST crowd?
are you really asking about your cardiac problem on an triathlon chat board ? perhaps its best to just listen to what the cardiologist tells you. or seek multiple MEDICAL opinions…