Angiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

Women Tend to Have the Ascending Aorta Involvement and the Rupture in Acute Aortic Dissection

Kazuhiro Nishigami, Yoko Endo, Tomohiro Sakamoto, Hideyuki Uesugi, Touitsu Hirayama and Koichi Nakao

Objective: Acute Aortic Dissection (AAD) is a highly lethal cardiovascular emergency. The ratio of female hasincreased in the ageing generation and gender-related differences in AAD might provide clinical implications on the management of AAD. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate current status of female patients with AAD.
Materials and Methods: We analyzed 235 consecutive AAD patients and divided all patients with AAD into two groups (109 male patients and 126 female patients) and compared their clinical features. Mean age of all patients was 72.3 ± 12.0 years.
Results: Women were older at initial diagnosis than men (mean ± SD age, 74.8 ± 10.6 years vs 69.4 ± 12.8 years; P=0.0005). The prevalence of type A was higher in female (65.9%) than in male (47.7%, P=0.005). Pericardial effusion (P=0.002), cardiac tamponade (P=0.001) and aortic rupture (P=0.04) were more common in women than in men. The involvement of the ascending aorta and the aortic rupture occurred more frequently in female patients with AAD than in male patients with AAD, and the number of female patients with AAD was not less than male.
Conclusion: We could suggest that ascending aorta was pathologically more fragile in aged women than in men.