Acute Aortic Syndrome

Excerpt

The first mention of the term acute aortic syndrome (AAS) was in 1998 by Vilacosta et al. and encompasses a collection of painful and life-threatening Aortic conditions, including acute aortic dissection (AAD), intramural hematoma (IMH), and penetrating aortic ulcers (PAU). Despite the overlapping signs and symptoms of each condition, they are individual entities that can progress from one into the other or co-exist at presentation, with approximately 12% of patients with AAD also having IMH or PAU. Early recognition and diagnosis are paramount in AAS due to the time-critical nature of the progression of the disease, with type A aortic dissection displaying up to a 2% per hour increase in mortality during the first 48 hours.