Risk Factors for Aortic Dissection in the Chinese Patients

Aortic dissection (AD) is a life-threatening cardiovascular disease with high mortality. Without optimal treatment, approximately 50% of patients die within one week of the onset of symptoms, and 80% die within 2 weeks. With the change of life-style and the development of diagnostic technology, the incidence and detection rate of AD were increasing in China recently. However, the cause remains unclear. Studies showed that AD were associated with some risk factors, such as hypertension, connective tissue disease, iatrogenic injury, drug, pregnancy, etc. It is reported that two thirds patients with AD had a history of hypertension; 50% patients aged <40 years were accompanied with hereditary Marfan syndrome; 13～19% had a familial history of aortic aneurysm or dissection. These epidemiological data were obtained from Caucasian population, however, such information was not available for the Chinese population. Moreover, epidemiological investigation was absent in China, and the assessment of risk factors for AD was mainly referred to the studies from developed countries. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate epidemiological features of risk factors for AD in Chinese patients using 3045 individuals from the 15 major centers in China. We anticipated that this analysis would provide helpful information preventing and controlling AD in China.