Key result
Biomarkers proposed for diagnosing acute aortic dissection have too low a specificity to be clinically useful in practice, requiring reliance on MRI or CT imaging.
Why the study?
What are the diagnostic implications and limitations of assessing D-dimer and fibrin degradation products levels in the management of patients with acute aortic dissection?
What are the diagnostic implications and limitations of assessing D-dimer and fibrin degradation products levels in the management of patients with acute aortic dissection?
Current biomarkers for acute aortic dissection lack sufficient specificity for clinical use, highlighting the need to evaluate the diagnostic utility of D-dimer and fibrin degradation products.
Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is an uncommon but potentially catastrophic condition, with an early mortality rate as high as 1% per hour. Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is also a serious cardiovascular disease with high mortality, albeit much lower than in AAD. One of the reasons for the lower mortality in AMI than AAD is that the former can be diagnosed with high specificity using biomarkers such as Troponin T or Troponin I. In contrast, AAD can only be diagnosed by MRI or CT imaging, as there are no unequivocal diagnostic biomarkers available. Certain biomarkers have been proposed for this purpose, such as myosin-heavy chain (1), creatinine phosphokinase-BB (2), calponin (3), TGF-beta (4) or serum elastin (5), but they have too low a specificity to be clinically useful in practice.
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Koichi Akutsu (2017) conducted a review in Acute aortic dissection. Biomarkers (including D-dimer and fibrin degradation products) was evaluated. Biomarkers proposed for diagnosing acute aortic dissection have too low a specificity to be clinically useful in practice, requiring reliance on MRI or CT imaging.
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