Objective To evaluate the safety and effectiveness of modified total arch replacement by retrospectively analyzing the clinical outcome of surgical patients with Stanford type A aortic dissection (AAD). Methods From June 2015 to December 2016, 39 consecutive patients with AAD were recruited to this study. This modified technique was preformed under general anesthesia and a 30℃ hypothermia circulatory arrest (HCA) with continual bilateral antegrade cerebral perfusion. Different surgical approaches were applied according to the aortic root condition: Bentall procedure (4 patients), David procedure (2 patients), aortic valve plasty and ascending aortic replacement (25 patients) and Cabrol procedure (8 patients). Concomitant procedures included mitral valve plasty (1 patient) and tricuspid valve plasty (1 patient). Results The average cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), aortic occlusion time (ACC), HCA and operation time was 218.5±42.2 min, 134.2±32.4 min, 4.9±2.3 min and 415.5±80.5 min respectively. Four patients required dialysis and 2 patients developed temporary neurological deficit. No permanent neurological deficit, postoperative paraplegia or in-hospital death occurred. Computed tomography examination was performed on all patients before discharge and 3 months after discharge. The follow-up result showed that 37 patients developed complete thrombosis in the false lumen and 2 patients developed partial thrombosis. Conclusion Modified total arch replacement is a safe and effective approach for AAD. It can greatly avoid postoperative complications and provide satisfactory short-term outcomes.
Objective To evaluate the value of 16slice spiral computed tomography (SCT) and its threedimensional reconstruction in diagnosis of aortic dissection (AD). Methods Fortyfive cases with AD underwent 16slice SCT, performed with unenhanced, contrastenhanced scanning and threedimensional reconstructions. Emphasis was placed on the true and false lumen, intimal flap, the entry and reentry tear and the involvement of branches of AD. Eleven cases were confimed by operation. Results True and false lumen and intimal flap of AD could be shown in all 45 cases (100%), the entry and reentry tears were revealed in 44 cases (97.8%) and 33 cases (73.3%), respectively. The right common iliac arteries were most easily involved by AD, 21 cases (46.7%). The thrombi in false lumen were shown in 29 cases (64.4%). Compared with surgery, the location and size of initial entry sites of 11 cases were consistent with the former. Conclusion 16slice SCT can exactly and completely diagnose AD, and provide detailed imaging information for clinical therapy. It’s very important for the selection of treatment methods and the observation of curative effect of patients.
In the segmentation of aortic dissection, there are issues such as low contrast between the aortic dissection and surrounding organs and vessels, significant differences in dissection morphology, and high background noise. To address these issues, this paper proposed a reinforcement learning-based method for type B aortic dissection localization. With the assistance of a two-stage segmentation model, the deep reinforcement learning was utilized to perform the first-stage aortic dissection localization task, ensuring the integrity of the localization target. In the second stage, the coarse segmentation results from the first stage were used as input to obtain refined segmentation results. To improve the recall rate of the first-stage segmentation results and include the segmentation target more completely in the localization results, this paper designed a reinforcement learning reward function based on the direction of recall changes. Additionally, the localization window was separated from the field of view window to reduce the occurrence of segmentation target loss. Unet, TransUnet, SwinUnet, and MT-Unet were selected as benchmark segmentation models. Through experiments, it was verified that the majority of the metrics in the two-stage segmentation process of this paper performed better than the benchmark results. Specifically, the Dice index improved by 1.34%, 0.89%, 27.66%, and 7.37% for each respective model. In conclusion, by incorporating the type B aortic dissection localization method proposed in this paper into the segmentation process, the overall segmentation accuracy is improved compared to the benchmark models. The improvement is particularly significant for models with poorer segmentation performance.
ObjectiveTo investigate the multidisciplinary management of patients with acute type A aortic dissection in late pregnancy.MethodsThe clinical data of 3 patients admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University from 2018 to 2019 were analyzed. Their age ranged from 27 to 32 years, while gestational age was 34-37 weeks. Sudden chest pain was the main clinical symptom before operation. All 3 patients underwent Bentall surgery after cesarean section under general anesthesia, of whom 2 patients received total arch replacement (TAR) combined with frozen elephant trunk (FET) implantation and 1 received coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) additionally.ResultsNo patient died during the perioperative period, and all the newborns were delivered successfully and survived healthily. The ICU stay was 3-5 d. The postoperative hospital stay was 15-18 d. The follow-up was 250-751 d. There was no recurrence or death. One patient who developed spontaneous pneumothorax and hydropneumothorax was cured in our center.ConclusionThe multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment strategy plays a crucial role in saving the life of pregnant patients with acute type A aortic dissection.
The surgical treatment of acute aortic dissection is difficult, and the mortality is associated with anastomosis site complications. Therefore, it is essential to make sure the end-to-end anastomosis safe and avoid bleeding. The methods of anastomosis include: direct anastomosis, adventitial inversion technique and sandwich technique. The latter two methods are both effective in hemostasis and reducing the postoperative complications. According to the recent literatures, the adventitial inversion technique may facilitate thrombotic closure of the false lumen in acute type A aortic dissection management and increase the long-term survival of the patients. This review introduces 2 modified methods of anastomosis as well, and summarizes clinical outcomes of different end-to-end anastomotic methods for surgical treatment of acute Stanford type A aortic dissection, in order to recommend the most proper method of end-to-end anastomosis.
Aortic aneurysm and dissection are critical cardiovascular diseases that threaten human life and health seriously. No pharmacological treatment can effectively prevent disease progression. The imbalance of aortic wall cells and non-cellular components leads to structural or functional degeneration of the aorta, which is a prerequisite for disease occurrence. As the important non-cellular component, extracellular matrix (ECM) is crucial to maintain the aortic structure, function, and homeostasis. Abnormal production of elastin and collagen, destruction of cross-linking between elastic fibers and collagen fibers, and the imbalance of metalloproteinase and inhibitors leads to excessive degradation of ECM proteins, all of which have destroyed the structure and function of aorta. It will provide more ideas for disease prevention and treatment by learning ECM proteins and their metabolic mechanism. Here, we focus on the ECM proteins that have been reported to be involved in aortic aneurysm and dissection, and discuss the regulatory mechanism of metalloproteinase and inhibitors.
ObjectiveTo investigate the improvement of visceral arterial blood supply after thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) for patients with Stanford type B aortic dissection (AD). MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed clinical data of 35 patients with Stanford type B AD undergoing TEVAR in Mianyang Central Hospital from January 2013 to March 2014. There were 30 male and 5 female patients with their age of 45-82(62.5±10.0) years. Among the 140 main visceral arteries (celiac artery, superior mesenteric artery, left and right renal arteries) of the 35 patients, blood supply of 79 arteries were compromised, including 36 arteries with stenosis and blood supply via the true lumen, 18 arteries with blood supply via both true and false lumen, 18 arteries with blood supply via the false lumen, and 7 arteries without blood supply. Improvement of blood supply of main visceral arteries was analyzed. ResultsAll the operations were successfully performed without in-hospital death. Operation time was 97.8 (68-147) minutes, length of ICU stay was 12-34 h, and length of hospital stay was 10-21 days. None of the patients had cerebral infarction, acute renal failure, AD rupture or stent migration after TEVAR. Blood supply of the compromised visceral arteries showed improvement in various degrees. ConclusionFor the treatment of Stanford type B AD, TEVAR can not only successfully block the rupture of AD, but also improve blood supply of main visceral arteries, avoid or reduce the complications resulting from compromised visceral arterial blood supply and visceral ischemia.
Objective To compare the early and late outcomes of different techniques of proximal root reconstruction during the repair of acute type A aortic dissection, including aortic valve (AV) resuspension, isolated supracoronary ascending aorta replacement, and aortic root replacement procedure (Bentall). Methods All patients who underwent acute Type A aortic dissection repair between January 2010 and December 2015 in Fuwai Hospital were retrospectively analyzed in our study. There were 673 patients with 512 males and 161 females at mean age of 48.80±11.22 years. There were 403 patients as an AV resuspension group (287 males and 116 females at average age of 50.61±9.95 years), 95 patients as an isolated supracoronary ascending aorta replacement group (76 males and 19 females at average of 49.83±12.21 years), and 175 patients as an AV resuspension group (149 males and 26 females at average of 44.07±11.99 years). The differences of preoperative aortic insufficiency, intraoperative variables and postoperative aortic insufficiency were compared in the three groups. Results Five hundred ninety-one patients (87.8%) had aortic valve commissure involved. The proportion of mild degree, moderate degree, and severe degree among the three groups were statistically significant (31.7%, 52.4%, 15.9%; 87.4%, 12.6%, 0.0%; 23.4%, 56.0%, 20.6%; P < 0.01). The diameter of aortic sinus in the three groups was 39.06±5.11 mm, 38.27±4.41 mm, 50.39±6.22 mm, respectively, with a statistical difference ( P< 0.01). The duration of surgery, cardiopulmonary bypass time, aorta cross-clamp time were also statistically significant (P < 0.01). The in-hospital mortality was 11.73% in the whole group. There was no difference among the three groups (12.2% vs. 13.7% vs. 9.7%, P=0.58). Five-year survival rate was similar (83.06% vs. 81.27% vs. 83.05%, P=0.85). The 5-year free from over moderate aortic insufficiency rate were 95.2%, 98.6% and 100% respectively, with no statistical difference (P=0.07). There was no re-do operation for aortic root diseases in the whole group. Conclusion According to aortic root processing strategy in our center, AV resuspension, isolated supracoronary ascending aorta replacement, and aortic root replacement can achieve satisfactory results. However, there is higher incidence of aortic insufficiency through AV resuspension. Further study is needed to evaluate its efficacy.
Objective To explore impact of climate change on aortic dissection and to put forward a new way about prediction and prevention of aortic dissection. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the characteristics of acute aortic dissection patients came from Hebei province in Fuwai Hospital between 2010 and 2016 year. Meanwhile, we collected monthly maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average temperature, average pressure, amount of rainfall, sunshine, humidity and other meteorological data. Generalized model was implied to explore climate change and the incidence of aortic dissection. Results A total of 1 121 acute aortic dissection patients from Hebei province were admitted in Fuwai Hospital during the period of 6 years. There were 774 patients were type A aortic dissection, and 347 patients were type B aortic dissection. The average age was 51.4±12.0 years. There were 873 males and 248 females. There were 889 (79.3%) patients with hypertension, 99 (8.83%) with Marfan syndrome. It was found that temperature, humidity and air pressure were all statistically significant for indication aortic dissection through single variable analysis (P<0.01). The temperature was only variable by one-way analysis of variance (P<0.01). The lowest temperature has the best predictive effect on the occurrence of aortic dissection. The relative risk was 1.02 with 95% confidence interval 1.02 to 1.03. Conclusion The change of climatic conditions can affect the occurrence of aortic dissection, and the lowest temperature is an important trigger factor for aortic dissection onset.
Objective To investigate the surgical treatment and results of coronary malperfusion due to acute Stanford A aortic dissection. Methods The clinical data of 56 patients with coronary malperfusion due to type A aortic dissection, who were hospitalized and underwent operation between January 2009 and December 2016, were analyzed retrospectively. There were 39 males and 17 females at age of 26–73 (51.36±16.47) years. Results The right coronary artery was involved in 48 patients, the left in 5 patients, and both coronary arteries in 3 patients. There were 12 patients with coronary bypass grafting, 19 patients with Cabrol’s operation, 25 patients coronary artery plasty. Twelve patients died postoperatively at mortality of 21.4%. Forty-four patients survived. The patients were followed up for 3 months to 3 years. No adverse event of cardiovascular happened. Conclusion Stanford A aortic dissection with coronary involvement is associated with high mortality rate.Aggressive coronary revascularization is essential to salvage these critically ill patients. The method to reconstruct the involved coronary depends on the patients’ condition and experience of surgeon.