Saturday, May 09, 2015

Blood pressure differential in assessing patients for aortic dissection



Bottom line: Presence of chest pain with blood pressure differential and/or pulse differential should raise clinical suspicion of aortic dissection. There is evidence that the presence of pressure difference greater than 20mmHg is a strong predictor of dissection, but absence of pressure differential should not exclude a diagnosis of aortic dissection.

Klompas M. Does this patient have an acute thoracic aortic dissection?

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