. 2009 Jul 7;3:81–95. doi: 10.2174/1874192400903010081

Table 1.

Potential Predictors of AAD Type A Investigated in the Literature Between 2000 and 2008

Variables	2000 Ref1	2000 Ref2	2000 Ref3^§	2001 Ref4^§	2004 Ref5	2006 Ref6	2006 Ref7	2008 Ref8^§	2008 Ref9^§	Rome Study	P<
Demographic
Year of surgery	+		+							+	^*
Age	+	+		+	+	+	+	+	+	+	^*
Sex	+	+		+	+	+	+	+	+	+	^*
NYHA class	+			+
Pre-operative
Diabetes		+				+				+
Atherosclerosis		+								+
High blood pressare	+	+			+	+		+	+	+	^*
Marfan syndrome		+		+	+		+		+	+	^*
Shock	+	+	+		+				+	+	^*
Syncope		+								+
Intubated									+	+	^*
Pericardial effusion									+	+
Pain	+	+				+				+
Pulselessness	+									+
Neurological symptoms			+						+	+	^*
Ischemic complications	+								+	+
Onset symptoms				+						+
Previous cardiac surgery	+	+		+	+	+				+	^*
Diagnosis	+	+								+
Coronary artery disease	+					+
COPD					+	+
Ejection fraction				+	+
Operative
Canulation site	+						+	+	+	+
Extracorporeal circulation (min)			+	+				+		+	^*
Circulatory arrest (min)	+							+	+	+	^*
Clamping time (min)				+				+		+
Temperature (°C)								+	+	+
Brain protection (coded)							+	+	+	+	^*
Bicuspid aortic valve				+						+	^*
Aortic insufficiency				+			+			+
Hemopericardium	+									+	^*
Type of surgery (coded)	+			+	+	+	+		+	+	^*
Coronary bypass	+					+				+
Aortic ropture	+			+
Immediate Post-operative
Bleeding in the first 24 h (ml)				+	+	+			+	+	^*
Limb ischemia										+	^*
Renal complications							+			+	^*
Dialysis in continuous						+	+			+	^*
Chronic renal failure			+		+				+	+	^*
Enterological complications						+	+			+	^*
Neurological deficits				+	+	+	+	+	+	+	^*
Tracheosthomy					+	+				+
Respiratory insufficiency					+	+
Malperfusion syndrome				+		+
Variables Studied (N)	18	11	5	16	14	17	11	10	17	37	22

Table 1. Apart the variable named “limb ischemia”, only potential predictors considered by at least 2 Studies, including our own, were considered. AAD: ascending aortic dissection; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

^§

marked references are technical reports rather than investigations purposely undertaken to assess the potential predictors of AAD Type A.

p<0.05 when comparing 30-day post-operative deaths versus patients alive, by univariate analysis, after Type A acute aortic dissection among 121 patients operated at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Cardiac Surgical Department: of the 37 variables investigated in our own Study, 22 showed significant differences and were therefore considered for multivariate analyses.