Dissecting aortic aneurysm in computed tomography

The dissecting aortic aneurysm (DAA) is an emergency, and because of that it requires urgent diagnosis and treatment. Many methods may by used to diagnose dissection, including aortography, CT, MRI, traditional and transesophageal ultrasonography. The computed tomography is often used in diagnostic of DAA, thus the knowledge of morphological characteristic of dissection is very important. The most important features of dissection in CT are presence of dissection of intima and two lumens, true and false. Nevertheless, the CT pictures of dissection not always appears like this, and sometimes the two lumens are identified only by their different rates of opacification with contrast material.