Acute aortic syndromes

Acute aortic syndromes Brief Review Acute aortic syndromes include aortic dissection, intramural hematoma of the aorta and penetrating ulcer of the aorta. The concept of acute aortic syndrome was introduced by Vilacosta I et al in an editorial which appeared in Heart in 2001.1 The nature and location of pain are important in the diagnosis of acute aortic syndrome. Usually it is an intense tearing type of pain and the location may change as the disease progresses as in aortic dissection. Pain in the front of the chest, neck or throat suggests ascending aortic involvement while pain in the back or over the abdomen suggests involvement of the descending thoracic or abdominal aorta.2 Most of the acute aortic syndromes are associated with significant hypertension, though aortic dissection may have a background of diseases like Marfan syndrome. Aortic dissection Aortic dissection is by far the most well known of the acute aortic syndromes. In the Stanford classification of aortic dissections, type A involves the ascending aorta while type B does not involve the ascending aorta.3 In DeBakey classification, type I involves the ascending aorta, aortic arch and the descending aorta. DeBakey type II aortic dissection involves only the ascending aorta while DeBakey type II is confined to the descending aorta.4 Aortic dissection can extend either anterogradely or retrogradely and involve the side branches. Myocardial infarction can result if the coronary ostium (usually right coronary) i...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs