Case Sometimes it is difficult to diagnose circumferential aortic dissection with enhanced computed tomography alone. A 58-year-old woman presented with sudden-onset chest discomfort and loss of consciousness. Transthoracic echocardiogram showed mild aortic regurgitation. Enhanced computed tomography scans showed no obvious intimal tear or flap at the proximal ascending aorta, but an intimal fl...

Acute aortic dissection bears all the stigmata of a true clinical emergency. The natural history of this acute aortic syndrome warrants prompt surgical intervention, with only a few absolute contraindications to this line of treatment. We present a 74-year-old man with documented metastatic prostate cancer who underwent emergent surgery for acute Stanford A aortic dissection. Having acknowledge...

Acute type-B aortic dissection is generally managed by administering medical treatment with an aim to achieve pain relief and hypertension control. Surgery is usually performed only in cases of type-B dissection complicated with limb ischemia, branch vessel compression or potential fatal aortic rupture. Herein, we report an extremely unusual case of type-B aortic dissection with partial involve...

BACKGROUND Acute aortic syndrome is the modern term that includes aortic dissection, intramural hematoma, and symptomatic aortic ulcer. Iatrogenic coronary artery dissection extending to the aorta during percutaneous coronary intervention is a very rare but life-threatening complication. Despite some reports of spontaneous recovery, most of these patients are treated surgically as a spontaneous...

OBJECTIVE To determine the most effective treatment, we performed a detailed comparative study of the clinical course of patients with type B aortic dissection with a patent or thrombosed false lumen who did not undergo surgery in the acute period. We examined the effect of patency of the false lumen on outcome. METHODS Computed tomography scans of 138 patients with type B acute aortic dissec...

Oxidative stress leads to vascular damage and participates in the pathomechanisms of aortic dissection and aneurysm formation. Here we study aortic dissection in mice deficient in the superoxide-generating reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase NOX1. Seven days of treatment with the hypertensive agent angiotensin II (3 mg/kg per day) led to aortic dissection in 23% of wild-...

A Stanford Type A aortic dissection is a life-threatening surgical emergency that requires emergent surgery. The mortality after repair is high especially if the aortic dissection is complicated by visceral or peripheral malperfusion. We describe a case of a male patient who presented with an aortic dissection involving the ascending aorta, aortic arch, descending thoracic aorta, and the abdomi...

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND Classification systems for aortic dissection provide important guides to clinical decision-making, but the relevance of traditional categorization schemes is being questioned in an era when endovascular techniques are assuming a growing role in the management of this frequently complex and catastrophic entity. In recognition of the expanding range of interventional therapie...

Acute aortic dissection is an uncommon disorder which can have fatal results in the event of treatment delay or misdiagnosis. This case examines a 77-year-old woman presenting with chest pain relieved by nitroglycerin. She was referred to the emergency room with clinical suspicion of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, she was later diagnosed with acute aortic dissection and an emergency op...

BACKGROUND Although single case reports have described acute aortic dissection in relation to cocaine use, this condition is not widely recognized, and the features of cocaine-related aortic dissection have not been defined. METHODS AND RESULTS We reviewed all available hospital charts from 1981 to 2001 with the ICD-9 diagnosis of aortic dissection. Among the 38 cases of acute aortic dissecti...