Purpose
To show our experience in the diagnosis of Acute Aortic Syndrome (AAS),
with special emphasis on the most common semiology.
Methods and Materials
This is a descriptive study,
including all Computed Tomography(CT)
with angiographic technique performed with suspected Acute Aortic Syndrome in the Emergency Department Radiologyin University Hospital La Princesa,
from December 2006 until June 2011.
Two hundredtwelve CT angiography were performedof 195 patients.
The protocol includes a basalthoracoabdominal CT and angiographyacquisition with intravenous constrastfrom lung apex to pubic symphysis.
Bolus tracking is used by placing the ROI (150 UH) inthe distal thoracic aorta,
with 2 ml of iodine contrast/kg and a speed injector of 4-5ml/s,
depending on...
Results
The AASincludes a heterogeneous group of patients with a clinical profile of aortic pain with a history of severe arterial hypertension.
In our case,
the diseases considered were intramural haematomas (IH),
aortic dissection (AD),
ruptured aneurysm and ulcerated plaques / aortic ulcers.
Seventy-nine per centof all patients were male with a mean of 65 years old (range 29-99 years).
The most common symptom was pain (thoracic,
abdominal,
lumbar) followed by pulsatile mass.
There was positive correlation for AAS in 47% of the studies.
The most...
Conclusion
The AAS has a high incidence in the elderly population with high morbidity and mortality.
The radiologist should be know the typical and atypical images of this syndrome.
Patients with aortic ulcers come many times to emergency room for pain and they have several studies presurgery.
They need monitoring because they have high risk of progression to aortic rupture.
Intramural haematomas require close monitoring by the short-term complications such as rupture and dissection.
In negative cases for AAS in CT angiography,
we find other etiologies...
References
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Personal Information
ML.
Parra Gordo,
MD
Department of Radiology
Hospital Universitario La Princesa
Diego de León,
62
Madrid (Spain)