title: Aortic dissecting aneurysms--histopathological findings.
abstract: Acute aortic dissection is a life-threatening disease with a high rate of mortality. At the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Hanover Medical School, 30 cases with aortic dissections were found during autopsy and examined histologically between 2006 and 2009. The grade of medial alterations in the form of cystic medial necrosis, elastin fragmentation, fibrosis and medionecrosis were estimated semi-quantitatively. In order to assess the normal aging process, samples of the aortic wall of 25 decedents without dissecting aneurysms were analyzed histologically. This study demonstrates that there are partly quantitative differences, particularly with a statistically significant increase in cystic medial necrosis (p<0.001) and elastin fragmentation (p<0.001), between aortas from dissecting aneurysms and the normal aging aorta, which may help to identify genetically predisposed relatives of patients with a dissection of the aorta.
authors.affiliation: Hanover Medical School, Institute of Legal Medicine, Hanover, Germany. jaenisch.stefanie@mh-hannover.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bode-Jänisch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Günther
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stuhrmann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fieguth
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000473:pathology*; D001011:Aorta / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000473:pathology*; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004549:Elastin / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005355:Fibrosis; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009336:Necrosis; D017540:Tunica Media / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D004549:Elastin