By Kay on Monday, March 19, 2001 - 02:30 pm:

I have been diagnosed with HMS (as has my sister and other family members). The joint hypermobility comes from my fathers side of the family. My father has recently been diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm and spent several days in hospital being monitored as they thought it may be leaking. He has no history (or current evidence) of heart disease which could have caused the aneurysm and the doctors think it may be a 'connective tissue thing'. My grandfather also died at a similar age (60) of a dissected aortic aneurysm. We definitely don't have Marfan (not tall enough!) and we don't have Vascular EDS - we have none of the other symptoms (translucent skin, non existent ear lobes and other facial features associated with Vascular EDS). My question is this - is the incidence of aortic aneurysm in our family coincidental or do others with HMS also have a history of aneurysm in their family. I was always led to believe that HMS is *benign* - but I'm starting to worry!!

By Betty on Monday, March 19, 2001 - 03:17 pm:

Kay, my father also had an aortic aneurysm at about age 60. My brother, age 62 was diagnosed with one last Oct and had successful surgery on it. I recently had an abdominal ultrasound done with nothing unusual found. I have recently been diagnosed with HMS, have a history of foot, back, joint problems, it seems like forever. Am just getting a handle on what the problem has been all these years. I am NOT crazy after all! I think it would be wise to have this checked out, as it is genetic. Don't worry unecessarily, just have the ultrasound done to be sure you are not at risk. Good luck.