Acute Myocardial Infarction and Concomitant Stroke as the Manifestations in a Patient with Type A Aortic Dissection: A Case Report with Three Years of Follow-Up.

A 55-year-old male patient presented with repeated acute retrosternal chest pain. Twelve-lead electrocardiogram and cardiac enzymes revealed non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. He was treated as non-ST elevation myocardial infarction at first. The symptoms of left-sided hemiparesis and aphasia occurred later on after admission. The results of emergent brain computed tomography and magnetic resonance imagining demonstrated acute stroke. The unusual presentation warned us of the possibility of aortic dissection. Besides the reports of heart and vessels computed tomography indicated aortic dissection as the underlying cause. Emergent surgical repair with preservation of the aortic valve led to a good recovery of heart and cerebral function. To the best of our knowledge, there were only three cases in the review of literature presenting with acute myocardial infarction and concurrent stroke resulting from acute aortic dissection.

Aortic Root Remodeling as an Indicator for Diastolic Dysfunction and Normative Ranges in Asians: Comparison and Validation with Multidetector Computed Tomography.

BACKGROUND: The aortic root diameter (AoD) has been shown to be a marker of cardiovascular risk and heart failure (HF). Data regarding the normal reference ranges in Asians and their correlates with diastolic dysfunction using contemporary guidelines remain largely unexplored. METHODS: Among 5343 consecutive population-based asymptomatic Asians with echocardiography evaluations for aortic root diameter (without/with indexing, presented as AoD/AoDi) were related to cardiac structure/function and N-terminal pro-brain B-type natriuretic peptide (Nt-ProBNP), with 245 participants compared with multidetector computed tomography (MDCT)-based aortic root geometry. RESULTS: Advanced age, hypertension, higher diastolic blood pressure, and lower body fat all contributed to greater AoD/AoDi. The highest correlation between echo-based aortic diameter and the MDCT-derived measures was found at the level of the aortic sinuses of Valsalva (r = 0.80, p < 0.001). Age- and sex-stratified normative ranges of AoD/AoDi were provided in 3646 healthy participants. Multivariate linear regressions showed that AoDi was associated with a higher NT-proBNP, more unfavorable left ventricular (LV) remodeling, worsened LV systolic annular velocity (TDI-s'), a higher probability of presenting with LV hypertrophy, and abnormal LV diastolic indices except tricuspid regurgitation velocity by contemporary diastolic dysfunction (DD) criteria (all p < 0.05). AoDi superimposed on key clinical variables significantly expanded C-statistic from 0.71 to 0.84 (p for ∆AUROC: < 0.001). These associations were broadly weaker for AoD. CONCLUSION: In our large asymptomatic Asian population, echocardiography-defined aortic root dilation was associated with aging and hypertension and were correlated modestly with computed tomography measures. A larger indexed aortic diameter appeared to be a useful indicator in identifying baseline abnormal diastolic dysfunction.