[Changing trend of clinical characteristics on aortic dissection over the last 10 years in Urumqi]

To discuss both clinical and epidemiological features as well as the changing trend of aortic dissection (AD).

Retrospective analysis on 238 patients with AD over a 10 year period in the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University. Hospital records and data on prognosis were compared between the two five-year periods.

238 cases with AD were hospitalized during the past 10 years with mean age as 51.9 +/- 12.1. The male/female ratio was 3.67 to 1. Hypertension was present in 73.5% of all the patients. Heavy smoking history was elicited in 44.1% of all the patients. Type I dissection were identified in 35.3% of all the cases, 7.6% in type II and 57.1% in type III. The mean age of the type A was much younger than in type B. In-hospital mortality of acute type A dissection was 36.5% and acute type B dissection was 9.5%. In the two five-year periods, the total number of cases increased by 240%, among which type I the fastest which increased by 360%. Changes regarding mean age and male/female ratio were not obvious. For acute AD, one-year survival rate improved but did not reach statistical significance.

Our data provided insight into current regional profiles of AD. The number of hospitalized patients with AD was increasing dramatically. Also the mean age of the first-attack was much younger and proportion of males and in-hospital mortality of acute type A dissection were together with both much higher than reports provided by researchers from other regions. These data suggested that there was an urgent need for further improvement in prevention and treatment of AD.