Penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer involving the ascending aorta

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Penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer involving the ascending aorta

Delicia I. Gentille-Lorente^I; Daniel Ortiz-Berbel^II

^IHospital de Tortosa "Verge de la Cinta" IISPV

^IITarragona; Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge, Barcelona - Spain

^{Mailing address}

Keywords: Aorta/injuries; coronary vessels/injuries; aortitis; pericardial effusion.

A 61-year-old Caucasian male, current smoker, with chronic ischemic heart disease, was admitted to the hospital due to angina. Coronary angiography showed an obstructive lesion in the circumflex coronary artery and a percutaneous intervention was performed. He later presented fever and anemia and was submitted to a transesophageal echocardiography and a computed tomographic scan (Panel A), which showed the existence of a dilated ascending aorta (45 mm), a solitary penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer (10 x 10 mm) surrounded by a type A intramural hematoma (top of arrow) and pericardial effusion (*). During the emergency surgery, the diagnosis was confirmed (Panel B, top of arrow and arrow).

Figure 1

Manuscript received November 29, 2010; revised manuscript received November 29, 2010; accepted December 08, 2010.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Oct 2011
• Date of issue
  June 2011