Sent for a CT with dye before my TAVR and nobody told me what they are actually looking for

#1Edith R(Joined May 2026 · 12 posts)August 6, 2026, 11:18 am

Following on from my last worry, which you were all so kind about. I have a date for the planning CT scan now, week after next, and a letter that says very little apart from where to go and not to have anything to eat beforehand. There is a paragraph about a dye injection and my kidneys and a phone number if I am on certain tablets.

What I do not understand is what they are looking FOR. I have already had the ultrasound one where the lady pressed the probe under my ribs, and that is the one that told them the valve is severe. So what does the CT add? Is it to check whether they will do the keyhole one or send me for the operation after all? Because I had rather got my hopes up about the keyhole one and I do not want to find out at this stage that I am not suitable.

Also, and I feel silly asking, does the dye do anything peculiar. My neighbour said something about a hot feeling that put the wind up me.

#2TwoNightsTerry(Joined Feb 2026 · 63 posts)August 6, 2026, 8:44 pm

The hot feeling is real and it is over in about ten seconds, so let me get that one out of the way. It goes up through your chest and then you get an absolutely cast iron conviction that you have wet yourself. You have not. They warn you and you still jump.

Scan itself was the easiest appointment of the whole run up for me. Arms above the head, hold your breath, done before you have settled in.

#3Diane FarrowFounder(Joined Jan 2026 · 214 posts)August 8, 2026, 9:52 am

Edith, the CT is not a second opinion on whether your valve is bad. That question is settled, and the ultrasound settled it. The CT is the planning scan, and it is the reason the weeks before a procedure are not the empty waiting they feel like.

Four things it works out, as they were explained to me. It measures the valve opening and the root above it in fine detail, so the team can choose a valve size that seals properly without over stretching anything. It shows where the calcium sits and how heavy it is. It measures how far your coronary arteries sit above the valve, which matters because the new valve pushes the old flaps outwards when it opens. And it follows the arteries from your groin all the way up to see whether they are wide enough and straight enough for the delivery tube to travel that route, which is what decides whether they go in at the groin or somewhere else.

So it can change the plan, yes. But usually it changes the detail of the plan, the size and the route, rather than throwing the whole thing out. It is a good deal more common to come out of it with a valve size chosen than with a refusal. I have set the whole run of tests out in order in what each scan is for, because I went through mine with no idea what any of them were answering.

The kidney paragraph is routine, by the way. The dye is cleared by the kidneys, so they check your bloods and adjust the amount or give you extra fluids if they need to. It is not a hint that something is wrong. Do ring the number about your tablets though, because that is exactly what it is there for, and your team need to hear it from you rather than from me.

#4Edith R(Joined May 2026 · 12 posts)August 9, 2026, 8:30 am

Diane, thank you. "It changes the detail of the plan, not usually the plan" is going on the fridge next to the other one.

I rang about the tablets and the nurse was very matter of fact about it. She also said I would get the results discussed at the team meeting rather than being told anything on the day, which is worth knowing because I would have been standing there trying to read the radiographer's face.

#5Ron Castellano(Joined Feb 2026 · 47 posts)August 11, 2026, 5:22 pm

One thing nobody told me and I wish they had. The CT is when they decide the access route, and for a small number of people the leg arteries are too narrow or too twisty and they go in somewhere else instead, up near the collarbone or through the chest wall. Still keyhole, still not the full operation, but a different recovery from the standard groin one.

I am not saying that to worry you Edith, the great majority go in at the groin. I am saying it because if it does come up you want to have heard the words before, not for the first time in a consent conversation.

#6Marlene K(Joined Mar 2026 · 31 posts)August 13, 2026, 12:05 pm

Mine did throw up something unexpected, so for balance. The CT picked up a narrowing in one of my coronary arteries that the ultrasound had said nothing about, and I had an angiogram added on before the valve. It felt like a setback at the time and I was very fed up about the extra fortnight.

In hindsight I would far rather they found it on a scan in advance than halfway through. That is genuinely what the planning is for.

#7Edith R(Joined May 2026 · 12 posts)August 19, 2026, 3:40 pm

Had it this morning. Twelve minutes on the table, the hot dye exactly as Terry described it, and I was back home before lunch wondering what I had been in such a state about.

No results yet, they go to the team meeting on Thursday. I have written down the access route question from Ron to ask when they ring. Feeling a great deal steadier about all of this than I did in June.