Course of disease
Calcification of the abdominal artery is usually accompanied by calcification of other vessels.This calcification begins naturally from the age of 20 for every person and can remain inconspicuous for a whole life in ideal health. However, if calcification is intensified by other factors, it initially only leads to calcification of the vessel walls. This initially has an effect on blood pressure.
Afterwards, various affected organs suffer from circulatory disorders. Often the heart is one of the organs that are affected first. Fingers and toes are also increasingly poorly supplied with blood.
Later, especially in the case of calcification of the abdominal artery, there is also a lack of blood supply to the digestive organs and the kidneys. If the vascular walls of the abdominal aorta are completely damaged, a life-threatening tearing of the abdominal aorta can occur. This could also be of interest to you:
- Circulatory disorder of the heart
- Renal artery stenosis
In the case of calcification of the abdominal aorta, the consequences only occur with very severe calcifications.
First of all, the reduced blood flow leads to a lack of blood supply to the digestive organs and the kidneys. The kidney in particular reacts very sensitively to the circulatory disorder and consequently triggers high blood pressure peaks. The organs can be so severely damaged by the lack of blood circulation that serious functional restrictions occur.
The legs are also not well supplied with blood when the abdominal artery is calcified. Initially, this only becomes noticeable during physical exertion by pain in the legs. In the advanced stage, the leg vessels also become blocked or blood clots form which block the vessels.
The tissue no longer supplied with blood can die if the clot is not removed. If the calcification of the abdominal aorta has progressed so far that the vascular wall is weakened, the abdominal aorta (aneurysm) may bulge. This can happen suddenly and possibly lead to a tear in the abdominal aorta with life-threatening bleeding.
But a chronic aneurysm can also occur. The carotid artery is mainly responsible for the blood supply to the head and brain. A calcified carotid artery can therefore have life-threatening consequences.
The consequences are based on three mechanisms: there can be a lack of blood supply to the brain because not enough blood flows through the carotid artery. Or a part of the calcification loosens, gets stuck in another vessel and blocks it. The third possibility is the formation of blood clots on the calcification, which can also block the vessels.
This results in circulatory disorders in the brain, which, depending on the location, can lead to very different or even life-threatening brain function failures. Above all, sudden occlusions or insufficient blood supply trigger strokes. More about this:
- Calcified carotid arteries
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