CT follow-up of medically treated type-B aortic dissection: a case report

The fate of the false lumen of a type-B aortic dissection was studied using computed tomography (CT) in a 64-year-old woman with hypertension. The CT follow-up showed the disappearance of the false lumen in the thoracic aorta, shrinkage and thrombosis of the false channel in the proximal abdominal aorta (in these sections no major vessel arose from the false lumen), and persistence of the false lumen in the distal abdominal aorta, where the right common iliac artery arose from the false lumen. Such different findings at the various levels of dissection have not been described previously, and confirm the presumption that the fate of dissection depends on the blood flow in the false channel. (orig.)