Echocardiography diagnosis of pregnancy with aortic dissection: a case report

Abstract

Background: We report a case of 34 weeks + gestation with aortic dissection to explore the diagnosis and treatment of this type of pregnant woman and to reduce maternal mortality. Case presentation: This report describes the clinical manifestations of a case of late pregnancy with acute aortic dissection (Stanford A Type). Echocardiography was used to detect the location of the rupture, the extent of exfoliation, the true and false lumen, the presence or absence of thrombus in the false lumen, the degree of aortic regurgitation, etc. After the diagnosis, the patients received surgical treatment as soon as possible. The detection rate and type diagnosis accuracy of ultrasonography for pregnancy complicated with aortic dissection are reliable. The location of the intimal rupture by ultrasound was consistent with the intraoperative findings, and there were no recent complications in the mother and newborn. Conclusion: The third trimester of pregnancy with aortic dissection is dangerous. As a simple, safe and non-invasive method, echocardiography has high clinical value in the diagnosis of pregnant patients with aortic dissection.

From dotted lines to fetal cardiology: the pioneering contribution of Xin‐Fang Wang (1934–2021)

“…This was confirmed to be distinct from maternal pulsatile waveforms in terms of rate, by performing maternal electrocardiography simultaneously. The study was first presented at the Chinese Medical Association (Wuhan Chapter) Annual Meeting in 1963, with a full paper published in 1964 (Figures 1, 2 and S1) 3 . Wang, who died in November 2021, was a graduate of Tongji Medical College, the Deutsche Medizinschule, founded by German Dr Erich Paulun in 1907 in Shanghai, and relocated to Wuhan in 1951.…”

“…No correlation between M-mode waveforms and specific cardiac structures was possible due to the lack of a fast cross-sectional scanning machine at that time. However, it is not difficult to make such correlations using the figures published in their paper 3 and background information can be found in Deng 6 and Woo 7 .) Kratochwil and Eisenhut's independent work in 1967 brought forward the detection of fetal cardiac activity significantly, to as early as 32 days after fertilization 1 .…”

“…The earliest article published on fetal echocardiography in German was by Kratochwil and Eisenhut in 1967 1 , and that in English was by Fred Winsberg in 1972 2 . However, there is a lesser-known study of this type, published in Chinese in 1964, by Xin-Fang Wang (Figure 1) and Ji-Peng Xiao 3 .…”