[The utility of color Doppler in dissecting aortic aneurysm]

We inform about the utility of Color-Doppler to identify dissection in aortic aneurysm. We studied five patients, fourth with dissection and one without dissection. All of them were in the fourth decade of life, except the patient without dissection, who developed symptoms at the age of 62. Two-dimensional echocardiography displayed the alterations of the aorta, such as dilatation of the walls, the presence or absence of dissection and in the cases with dissection the extension of it (three patients had DeBakey Type I, one DeBakey Type III an other DeBakey Type II). In all patients with dissection the Doppler study determined the presence or absence of flow through the false channel, in particular in the second and fifth patient and with Color-Doppler we observed that the flow was bidirectional. Also the degree of aortic incompetence could be quantified. It is concluded that with two-dimentional echocardiography it is possible to identify the anatomical features of aortic aneurysm and that Doppler study gives additional hemodynamic information which has importance in therapy and prognosis.