Focused Cardiac Ultrasound Diagnosis of Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm: Two Cases

Transthoracic Ultrasound Evaluation of Arch and Descending Thoracic Aortic Pathology

“…Previously, the accuracy of ultrasound in detecting pathology of the thoracic aorta has been investigated mainly in reference to the ascending aorta, and there are relatively few studies investigating this technique in the descending portion of the thoracic aorta. 11,12,16 The recently published European Society of Vascular Surgery guidelines highlight the fact that prior to this work there were no specific studies examining the role of ultrasound in diagnosing diseases of the descending thoracic aorta and the limitations of this modality when used for this purpose. 17 The largest of Figure 3.…”

“…The authors reported a good concordance for the detection of ascending aortic dilatation (40 mm cutoff) with a specificity of 0.95 and sensitivity of 0.77. 12 Two case reports also describe the detection of an aortic root and a descending aorta aneurysm in the emergency setting using Focused Cardiac Ultrasonography (FOCUS) 11 and diagnosis of a descending TAA with associated acute dissection. 18 Both the case studies and retrospective studies reported identifying the aneurysms via a parasternal long axis view with measurements made from outer wall to outer wall.…”

“…10 Recently, few case reports have described cardiac ultrasound diagnosis of TAAs, including the descending aorta in emergency settings. 11,12 This study aimed to prospectively assess the feasibility and accuracy of DUS for the diagnosis of aneurysms of the descending thoracic aorta and to propose a functional protocol for such an assessment.…”