Prognostic impact of early aortic volume changes at hospital discharge in patients with acute type B aortic dissection

J Cardiol. 2024 Jan;83(1):49-56. doi: 10.1016/j.jjcc.2023.08.007. Epub 2023 Aug 15.

Abstract

Background: Early prediction of aorta-related events is important for determining subsequent treatment strategies in patients with acute aortic dissection. However, most studies evaluated long-term aortic growth rates by annual assessment. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the in-hospital growth rate of aortic volume was associated with aorta-related events.

Methods: We studied 116 patients with uncomplicated type B acute aortic dissection. We analyzed whether changes in aortic volume were associated with aorta-related events during a 5-year follow-up. According to the growth rate from admission to discharge, patients were divided into two groups: Increase >0 (aortic volume: n = 59, aortic diameter: n = 43) and Reduction ≤0 (aortic volume: n = 57, aortic diameter: n = 73) in maximum aortic diameter or aortic volume. The primary endpoint was the discriminative ability of the growth rate of aortic volume for aorta-related events.

Results: According to the evaluation of aortic volume changes, the Increase group had significantly higher aorta-related event rates than those in the Reduction group (49.2 % vs. 3.5 %, respectively; p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristics analysis showed that the growth rate of aortic volume had a clearly useful discrimination, with an area under the curve of 0.84, whereas the discriminative ability of the growth rate of maximum aortic diameter was poor (area under the curve: 0.53). Multivariate analysis showed that the growth rate of aortic volume from admission to discharge was an independent predictor of aorta-related events (hazard ratio, 26.3; 95 % confidence interval, 2.04-286.49; p = 0.001).

Conclusions: In-hospital evaluation of aortic volume was helpful to predict long-term aorta-related events in patients with uncomplicated type B acute aortic dissection.

Keywords: Acute aortic dissection; Aortic volume; Computed tomography; Prognosis.

MeSH terms

  • Acute Disease
  • Aorta
  • Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic*
  • Aortic Dissection*
  • Humans
  • Patient Discharge
  • Prognosis
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Factors
  • Treatment Outcome