Biomarkers in Acute Aortic Dissection and Other Aortic Syndromes

Acute aortic syndromes have an incidence of > 30 per million per annum and a high mortality without definitive treatment. Survival may relate to the speed of diagnosis. Although pain is the most common symptom, there is a large fraction of patients in whom the diagnosis may be mistaken or overlooked. Currently, a high index of clinical suspicion is the chief prompt that diverts a patient into a definitive algorithm of imaging investigations. Although there is no point-of-care biochemical test that can be reliably used to positively identify dissection, biomarkers are available that could accelerate the diagnostic pathway and thereby expedite treatment. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2010; 56: 1535-41) (C) 2010 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation