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- Sun Jan 25, 2004 4:13 pm
I have an epigastric bruit. My doctor originally thought that it was due to renal artery stenosis since I also have a recent onset of hypertension at a relatively young age. However, a recent renal angiogram showed no evidence of stenosis. What else can cause an epigastric bruit?
| Dr. Yasser Mokhtar
- Thu Jan 29, 2004 11:30 pm
Thank you very much for using our website.
A bruit is a sound that is heard on a blood vessel secondary to turbulence of flow in that vessel. The presence of the bruit in itself does not necessarily mean that there is a blocked vessel.
The epigastric region contains lots of blood vessels including the major blood vessel of the body the aorta and many of the major vessels of the body going to the liver, stomach, pancreas and intestines.
The bruit that you have could originate from any of those blood vessels. But since you developed new onset hypertension and your doctor heard this bruit, the assumption was that the bruit was from your renal arteries. Since you had a normal renal arteriogram, this means that you do not have renal artery stenosis but does it mean that the bruit is not coming from the renal artery? Once more, not necessarily.
This bruit just means turbulance of blood in some blood vessel. It would be very unpractical if we go around trying to find the source of the bruit doing angiograms or dopplers or other investigations since you are currently asymptomatic and you had the renal arteriogram (since you had hypertension) that was normal. Otherwise, i would suggest that you follow up with your doctor and if you develop any new symptoms or signs.
Once more, thank you very much for using our website http://doctorslounge.com and i hope that this information helped.
Yasser Mokhtar, M.D.