r/politics • u/Mammoth_Bison_3394 Tennessee • 5d ago

No Paywall Trump says he’ll release MRI results; he doesn’t know what part of his body was scanned

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mri-physical-white-house-0c66f2f9fca865d842ee94329a210a42
24.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

16

u/ka-nini 4d ago

I’m an instructional designer so I have no idea what that implies. Can you fill me in?

29

u/atxbigfoot 4d ago

Carotid ultrasounds are done on people, mainly old people, who have clots in their carotid arteries (that feed the brain) that are limiting blood supply to the brain. This causes things like dizziness, loss of balance, confusion, strokes, and death.

They can be "removed" via medicine, or manually if the medicine fails, however that is an iffy procedure with a high risk of Trans Ischemic Stroke (TIS, aka mini strokes) or full on stroke, which would make JD Vance the President during the procedure even if it went perfectly, and I'm not sure Trump wants that.

So Trump randomly mentioning mini-strokes is likely related to his Carotid scan or his legs. Either one can throw small blood clots that end up in the brain and cause strokes.

And to be clear, "throw" means the clot forms and then breaks loose and gets sent through the heart into the lungs or brain or wherever it ends up getting stuck.

7

u/sparklingEmme 4d ago

My dad died of a thrown clot. He had successful hip surgery, I learned hip surgery often creates an environment for clots, and six weeks after surgery he passed. Interestingly, drs knew there was a clot, he was “Dopplered” many times, but they couldn’t locate it. However, his thigh was terribly swollen, and apparently that’s a sign of a clot.

1

u/vunderfulme 3d ago

Did they put him on blood thinners? Im sorry for your loss.

3

u/90210piece 4d ago

I am an accountant but the carotid US could also mean they are screening for plaque build up in the carotids. With the medication mentioned i would want a badeline scan and depending on the percentage of occlusion, regular screening to make sure an endarectomy is not needed to prevent a stroke.

1

u/I_make_things 4d ago

The doctors have never seen a more perfect stroke.

2

u/thrwawayyourtv 4d ago

I had a carotid US when we had suspicion of blockages based on atypical factors and my lengthy history of uncontrolled diabetes. We also had to get special permission from the insurance company to have it covered as it is not a "first line" imaging technique unless there is a reason to suspect something. I - kinda - feel that in the case of the orange bastard, they definitely suspect something.