Incidence, risk factors, outcome and projected future burden of acute aortic dissection.

Acute aortic dissection has a high mortality rate, despite well-established treatment guidelines (1). Data on risk factors, incidence and outcome of aortic dissection are limited, largely due to a lack of contemporary population-based studies of this condition. Existing hospital-based studies, often from specialist centers or studies of retrospective registry data such as the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (IRAD), may underestimate incidence and case fatality by incomplete inclusion of deaths prior to hospital admission, which might also bias assessment of risk factors and predictors of outcome. This research highlight outlines the findings of our recent population-based research of acute aortic dissection, which is the first-ever prospective epidemiological study of this condition (2). We studied event rates, incidence, risk factors, early case fatality, and long-term outcome of all acute aortic events occurring in a population of 92,728 in Oxfordshire, UK, during 2002-2012, as part of the Oxford Vascular Study (OXVASC). Using current incidence data and Office of National Statistics (ONS) population projections (3), we went on to predict UK incidence event rates for acute aortic dissection over the next 40 years.