Neck vessels geometry and diameter change in patients with acute type A aortic dissection

Branched prostheses are used to treat aortic arch with dissection. However, changes in the neck vessel geometry and diameter after dissection are not well known. We aimed to evaluate neck vessels geometry and changes in diameter with dissection.

A total of 209 patients admitted to our hospital for acute type A aortic dissection, and we excluded patients with insufficient computed tomography image to evaluate neck vessels; as such 201 patients were included. We measured the neck vessels geometry with or without dissection, and additionally evaluated the pre- and postdissection neck vessel diameters in 16 patients for whom predissection computed tomography were available.

The average differences between the non-dissected and dissected vessels were 3.0 mm in proximal innominate artery (IA), 2.8 mm in distal IA, 2.5 mm in proximal left carotid artery (LCCA), 3.1 mm in distal LCCA, 2.7 mm in proximal left subclavian artery (LSA), and 1.9 mm in distal LSA. The average pre- and postdissection diameters of the neck vessels were as follows: IA: 15.1 ± 2.6 and 16.7 ± 3.2 mm (P = 0.002); LCCA: 10.7 ± 0.9 and 12.3 ± 1.2 mm (P = 0.054); and LSA: 12.4 ± 2.5 and 12.8 ± 2.1 mm (P = 0.32).

In patients with acute type A aortic dissection, dissected neck vessels diameter is significantly larger than that of the non-dissected neck vessels diameter. However, the postdissection diameter changes in the neck vessels were mostly <2 mm.