Impact of meteorological conditions on the occurrence of acute type A aortic dissections

Abstract

The impact of meteorological conditions on the occurrence of various cardiovascular events has been reported. The aim of this work was to study the correlations between weather conditions and the occurrence of type A acute aortic dissections (AADs). Between 1997 and 2007, all the medical records of patients who underwent surgery for type A AADs in Toulouse University Hospital (France) were reviewed. The clinical data were confronted with the meteorological data provided by the French national meteorological office (MétéoFrance) over the same period. Two hundred and six patients with spontaneous type A AADs underwent surgery during this period. The incidence of aortic dissection was higher in winter time than in summer (P=0.018). The days with aortic dissections were colder than those without aortic dissections (P=0.017). Statistical analysis highlighted a decrease of atmospheric temperature during the three days preceding the upset of the symptoms (P=0.0009). This work demonstrates a correlation between spontaneous type A AADs and low atmospheric temperature.

Winter cardiovascular diseases phenomenon

“…Several studies have reported a seasonal variation in the incidence of in aortic rupture or dissection, the incidence of aortic dissection and rapture were found to be higher in winter time than in summer in 45.8% of the studies,[37–47] and 41.6% of these studies reported significant peak of incidence in spring and autumn. [48–57] while only 12.5% failed to find convincing evidence of seasonality in rupture or dissection of aortic aneurysm.…”

Seasonal incidence of hospital admissions for Stanford type A aortic dissection

“…Studies to date that have examined the association between season and incidence of SA-AoD have yielded mixed results. A statistically significant seasonal variation with a peak in winter was observed by two European case series (France, n ¼ 206, p ¼ 0.018; Switzerland, n ¼ 282, p ¼ 0.011) (Benouaich et al, 2010;Kobza et al, 2002). In contrast, a seasonal variation in incidence was not observed among 570 patients with SA-AoD enrolled in the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (IRAD) between 1996 and 2000 (p ¼ 0.31) (Mehta et al, 2002).…”

Occurrence of acute cardiovascular diseases under different atmospheric parameters

“…A vérnyomás szintén emelkedő értéket mutat [23,24,25]. Alacsony légköri hőmérsékleten az aortadissectio-esetek száma is növekvő incidenciát mutat [26].…”