title: Inflammatory aneurysm of the ascending aorta: report of a case.
abstract: Inflammatory aortic aneurysms are found most commonly in the infrarenal abdominal aorta. We report the case of a 78-year-old man with an inflammatory aortic aneurysm of the ascending aorta, which is extremely unusual. Surgery revealed that the ascending aorta was adherent to the superior vena cava and pulmonary artery, but a dissection membrane was not found. The wall of the ascending aorta was up to 20 mm thick with perianeurysmal fibrosis. Pathologic examination revealed an inflammatory aneurysm with adventitia remarkably thickened by fibrotic tissue and infiltrated by lymphocytes and plasma cells. Our search of the literature found only seven other cases of an inflammatory ascending aortic aneurysm. Preoperative diagnosis was very difficult in most of these cases; however, improved scanning techniques using multidetector row computed tomography may allow the differential diagnosis of this clinical entity.
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hyogo Brain and Heart Center, 520 Saisho-ko, Himeji 670-0981, Japan.
authors: Masato
authors: M
authors: Yoshida
authors: Nobuhiko
authors: N
authors: Mukohara
authors: Tasuku
authors: T
authors: Honda
authors: Nobuchika
authors: N
authors: Ozaki
authors: Tsutomu
authors: T
authors: Shida
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001011:Aorta / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D017545:Aortic Aneurysm, Thoracic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
references: Circulation. 1996 Apr 1;93(7):1477-8
references: 8641046
references: Ann Thorac Surg. 2005 Nov;80(5):1912-4
references: 16242484
references: Surgery. 1978 Apr;83(4):425-30
references: 635778
references: Ann Thorac Surg. 1997 Jul;64(1):251-3
references: 9236377
references: Br J Surg. 1972 Aug;59(8):609-14
references: 5069199
references: Ann Surg. 1997 Feb;225(2):155-64
references: 9065292
references: J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2002 Apr;123(4):822-4
references: 11986615
references: Ann Thorac Surg. 1998 Apr;65(4):1132-3
references: 9564942
references: Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2001 Feb;19(2):214
references: 11167114
references: J Cardiovasc Surg (Torino). 1994 Feb;35(1):33-4
references: 8120075