Researchers find inflammation critical in aortic dissection
Monday, November 16, 2009 - 20:21
in Health & Medicine
The aorta, the body's largest artery, stretches from the chest to below the kidneys, expanding and contracting with the pressure of blood driven directly into it by the heart. Although its walls are extraordinarily strong, like other blood vessels the aorta can sometimes develop bulges, called aneurysms. Like other aneurysms, those in the aorta sometimes give way, and the result is what doctors refer to as an "aortic dissection" - a clinical way of saying that the largest artery in your body has just started leaking, and you may well be on your way to becoming one of the nearly 16,000 Americans killed by the phenomenon annually.