Ambulatory follow-up of aortic dissection: comparison between computed tomography and biplane transesophageal...

Aim of the study was to assess the relative usefulness of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) in the follow-up of patients who survived an aortic dissection.

We evaluated 44 patients (age = 57 +/- 12 years) with treated aortic dissection: 14 had a De Bakey type I, 20 a type II and 1 patient a type III dissection treated surgically: 1 patient had a type I, 1 a type II and 7 a type III dissection treated medically. All entered an outpatient follow-up program with serial evaluations at 1, 6 and 12 months after initial diagnosis by dual noninvasive imaging protocol. A contrast-enhanced CT scan and a TEE with biplane probe were performed on the same day and in random order.

A total of 252 evaluations with both CT and TEE were considered. A completely normal study was found in 45 TEE and 48 CT evaluations. The following abnormal findings could be documented by one or both techniques: thrombus in the false lumen (TEE: n = 48; CT: n = 45 evaluations); intimal flap (TEE and CT: n = 68); aortic dilatation (TEE and CT: n = 15); pericardial effusion (TEE and CT: n = 3); aortic pseudoaneurysm (TEE: n = 2; CT: n = 3); isthmic coarctation (TEE and CT: n = 1). Regarding the presence or absence of these abnormalities, which are within the diagnostic domain of both imaging techniques, the results were fully concordant in 245 studies, and discordant in 7, with an overall agreement of 97%. In addition, some abnormal findings could be detected by TEE only: aortic insufficiency (n = 36); intimal tear (n = 25); spontaneous echocontrast effect in the false lumen (n = 39 evaluations). Other abnormal findings could be detected by CT only: a pleural effusion in 4, a truncus anonymous dissection in 1, a pseudoaneurysm due to suture dehiscence of the distal anastomosis of the ascending aorta in 1 evaluation (which yielded ambiguous results by TEE, with turbulent flow departing from the graft).

Both CT and TEE are atraumatic, safe and accurate techniques for serial follow-up imaging of patients treated for aortic dissection. Information provided by CT is largely redundant, rather than additive, to that provided by TEE. The latter should be probably preferred for shorter imaging time, accuracy and convenience, although CT might still play a role in selected cases of ambiguous TEE results.