OBJECTIVE To review diseases of the aorta that commonly require management in the critical care unit. DATA SOURCES Articles and published reviews on aortic dissection, traumatic aortic rupture and aortic aneurysm. SUMMARY OF REVIEW The aorta is the largest arterial vessel of the body and disorders that can lead to rupture (e.g. aortic dissection, traumatic aortic rupture and aortic aneurysm...

OBJECTIVE To improve the long term outcomes of the surgery for Stanford type A aortic dissection, we performed ascending aorta and total aortic arch replacement combined with transaortic stented graft implantation into the descending aorta for acute and chronic type A aortic dissection. METHODS From April 2003 to March 2004, 40 consecutive patients with acute or chronic Stanford type A aortic...

Voltage-gated Na(+) channel currents (I(Na)) are expressed in several types of smooth muscle cells. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the expression of I(Na), its functional role, pathophysiology in cultured human (hASMCs) and rabbit aortic smooth muscle cells (rASMCs), and its association with vascular intimal hyperplasia. In whole cell voltage clamp, I(Na) was observed at potential po...

Until recently, patients with aneurysms of the thoracic and thoracoabdominal aorta had only one treatment option: open surgical repair. For those patients who could not tolerate an operation because of medical comorbidities, continued aneurysm enlargement and eventual rupture was a constant, yet unpredictable threat to their lives. Several studies have documented improved survival rates in thos...

OBJECTIVES The combined disease of the aortic arch and the proximal descending aorta remains a surgical challenge. With the 'frozen elephant technique', the ascending aorta, along with the aortic arch, is replaced conventionally and an endovascular stent graft is placed into the descending aorta in the antegrade manner through the open aortic arch, thereby potentially allowing for a 'single-sta...

In order to find the ideal distal circulatory support during cross-clamping of the descending thoracic aorta, the author compared the effects of simple shunting (SS) and centrifugal pump (CP) on hemodynamics and metabolisms in mongrel dogs. In group I (control), the aorta was cross-clamped for two hours without SS or CP; in group II (SS), a temporary shunt was placed between the left common car...

BACKGROUND Early diagnosis and treatment of aneurysm plays an important role in reducing the mortality risk of rupture. The aneurysm is a complex phenomenon and caused by different reasons, such as arteriosclerosis and heredity. In addition, pressure and Wall Shear Stress are two known factors influencing the establishment of an aneurysm. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of us...

In this paper, a boost converter with a clamp circuit is proposed for high intensity discharge (HID) lamp application. The clamp circuit provides zero voltage turn on for both main and clamp switches. Compared to conventional boost converters, the proposed converter has the following advantages: (i) high voltage gain without suffering from extreme duty ratio, (ii) low stress on the switches and...

Objective: Acute dissection of the ascending aorta requires immediate surgical intervention. In this study, we report our first results with valve sparing aortic root reconstruction removing all the diseased tissues. Methods: From August 1995 to December 2000, 22 patients with acute aortic dissection of the ascending aorta (Stanford type A) underwent valve sparing aortic root reconstruction. Th...

With great interest, we have read the letter from Dr. Saleh et al. concerning our recently published article ‘Minimally invasive mitral valve surgery is a very safe procedure with very low rates of conversion to full sternotomy’ in the EJCTS [1]. We very much appreciate the comments from this expert group and it is our pleasure to respond. The minimally invasive approach through a right-sided m...