UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Aortic Dissection and Cardiac Complications

Keywords: Aortic dissection, STEMI, cardiac tamponade, aortic insufficiency, echocardiography (PubMed Search)

Posted: 9/30/2015 by Daniel Haase, MD
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Classically, aortic dissection presents as tearing or ripping chest pain that radiates to the back in a HYPERtensive patient.

However, type A aortic dissections can quickly become HYPOtensive due to any the primary cardiac complications from retrograde dissection into:

Bedside echo can't rule out aortic dissection, but it can help rule in the diagnosis (figure 1) or complications (figure 2) at times.