If the Aneurysm is located near the outlet from the heart, the symptoms may never seem severe to the person who has it. If it is located in the arch of the aorta, the symptoms, generally more marked, are likely to include a peculiar brassy cough, hoarseness, much pain, difficulty in breathing, swelling of one arm or the face and the neck, distended veins in the neck and upper chest, and bulging of the chest wall, forming a pulsating tumor. If the Aneurysm is located in the descending portion of the thoracic aorta, there may be no symptoms unless it becomes large enough to press on one or more ribs or on the backbone. Aneurysm located within the chest can be treated by vascular surgery. Unless successfully treated, hemorrhage into the chest or the lungs, or even erosion through the chest wall with external bleeding, may occur resulting in death with in a matter of minutes.
Physical exertion is likely to bring on such hemorrhage.
In the vein, the embolus moves toward the heart and then the right side of that organ and out into the pulmonary artery, finally lodging somewhere in the lung. If the embolus is large, it may cause sudden death. When an embolus originates in the left side of the heart or in an artery, it is carried in a direction away from the heart and lodges in some of the smallest arteries. In measuring a person s blood pressure, two readings are taken, the high and the low. The highest pressure which the heart produces as it pumps blood into the arteries is called the systolic pressure.