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- Title
Type A Aortic Dissection Presenting with Acute Lower Extremity Vascular Insufficiency in the Absence of Chest Pain.
- Authors
Earl, Thomas J.; Poppas, Athena
- Abstract
We report a case of a 53 year-old man with a history of hypertension presenting with acute left lower extremity parasthesias and pulselessness initially presumed to be secondary to arterial thrombosis or embolism. Work-up included a transthoracic echocardiogram which revealed an aortic dissection at the level of the aortic root extending to the visualized portions of the descending aorta. Type A aortic dissections are relatively rare, with the vast majority of patients presenting with chest pain. Timely diagnosis of Type A aortic dissections are critical as to facilitate rapid surgical repair. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a painless Type A aortic dissection presenting with isolated lower extremity vascular insufficiency and demonstrates the potential role of transthoracic echocardiography as a rapid, non-invasive bedside modality in visualizing Type A aortic dissections.
- Subjects
CARDIOVASCULAR disease diagnosis; HYPERTENSION; ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY; VASCULAR diseases; CHEST pain; AORTIC dissection; LEG
- Publication
Open Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, 2012, Issue 5, p1
- ISSN
1179-0652
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.4137/OJCS.S8042