Aortic intramural hematoma
| Cardiology Network |
 Discuss Aortic intramural hematoma further in the WikiDoc Cardiology Network |
| Adult Congenital |
|---|
| Biomarkers |
| Cardiac Rehabilitation |
| Congestive Heart Failure |
| CT Angiography |
| Echocardiography |
| Electrophysiology |
| Cardiology General |
| Genetics |
| Health Economics |
| Hypertension |
| Interventional Cardiology |
| MRI |
| Nuclear Cardiology |
| Peripheral Arterial Disease |
| Prevention |
| Public Policy |
| Pulmonary Embolism |
| Stable Angina |
| Valvular Heart Disease |
| Vascular Medicine |
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Associate Editor-In-Chief: Cafer Zorkun, M.D., Ph.D. [2]
Please Join in Editing This Page and Apply to be an Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [3] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.
Overview
- It may occur as a primary event in hypertensive patients in whom there is spontaneous bleeding from vasa vasorum into the media or may be caused by a penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer.
- Intramural hematoma may also develop as a result of blunt chest trauma with aortic wall injury.
- Thought to begin with the rupture of the vasa vasorum, the blood vessels that penetrate the outer half of the aortic media from the adventitia and arborize within the media to supply the aortic wall.
- The hematoma propagates along the media layer of the aorta.
- Consequently, intramural hematoma weakens the aorta and may progress either to outward rupture of the aortic wall or to inward disruption of the intima, the latter leading to communicating aortic dissection.
- Unlike aortic dissection, no intimal flap is present.
- If it involves the ascending aorta, treatment is surgical to prevent rupture or progression to a classic aortic dissection.
- Conservative management is indicated for aortic intramural hematomas of the descending aorta.
Diagnostic Findings
- On unenhanced CT, intramural hematoma is hyperdense.
- Intramural hematoma can be distinguished from mural thrombus by identification of the intima:
- Mural thrombus lies on top of the intima (which is frequently calcified)
- Intramural hematoma is subintimal.
Examples
Labeled images courtesy of RadsWiki
References
- Macura, Katarzyna J., Corl, Frank M., Fishman, Elliot K., Bluemke, David A. Pathogenesis in Acute Aortic Syndromes: Aortic Dissection, Intramural Hematoma, and Penetrating Atherosclerotic Aortic Ulcer. Am. J. Roentgenol. 2003 181: 309-316.
- Gomez-Jorge, Jackeline. E-medicine rads article