title: Fulminant Infectious Aortitis With Ascending Aortic Rupture.
abstract: Infectious aortitis is associated with a high rate of acute aortic adverse events. However, the nonspecificity of symptoms and low sensitivity of blood cultures may delay early recognition of this condition. A 77-year-old man was incidentally found to have aortitis. His disease took a fulminant course and was complicated by dissection and rupture only 4 days after the diagnosis. Serial computed tomographic angiography provided valuable information about the development of aortitis into dissection and rupture. Postdissection histologic analysis revealed gram-positive cocci in the aortic wall.
authors.affiliation: Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Electronic address: kkassar@wpahs.org.
authors.forename: Kinan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kassar
authors.affiliation: Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lucke
authors.affiliation: Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Cunfeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pu
authors.affiliation: Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tsukashita
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D001013:Aorta, Thoracic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D001019:Aortic Rupture / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D001025:Aortitis / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014656:Vascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods