Table 1.

Characteristics of the 16 deceased

No	Age		Aorta					Causes of death
	At FI	At death	Before FI		After FI			Cardiovascular	Non‐cardiovascular
			Dissectiona	Surgery	Dissectiona	Surgery	New pathologyb
1	33	37	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Postoperative aortic dissectiona
2	40	43	No	Yes	Type A	Yes	Yes	Postoperative aortic dissectiona
3	54	65	No	No	Type B	No	Yes	Stroke probably due to aortic dissectiona
4	53	63	No	No	No	No	No	Heart failure (AI+MR)
5	39	51	No	No	No	No	Yes	Heart failure (AI +coronary heart disease )
6	65	74	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	End‐stage heart failure due to AI
7	53	60	No	Yes	No	No	No	Multiple organ failure/brain injury after heart transplant
8	47	54	No	Yes	No	No	No	Complications due to aortic dilatation? Arrhythmia?
9	45	58	No	No	No	No	Yes	MI/arrhythmia/aortic pathology?
10	58	63	Type B	No	No	No	No	Cardiac arrest
12	48	58	Type A	Yes, twice	No	No	No	Septicemia and DIC (possible endocarditis)
11	40	49	No	Yes	No	No	No		Colon cancer with metastases
14	68	73	No	No	No	No	No		Colon cancer with metastases
13	61	72	No	No	No	No	Yes		Septicemia
15	58	70	No	No	No	No	No		Septicemia
16	60	65	No	No	No	No	No		Non‐Hodgkin lymphoma

AI: aortic insufficiency; DIC: disseminated intravascular coagulation; FI: The first investigations; MI: myocardial infarction; MR: mitral regurgitation.

^aStanford type A/B.

^bNew/progression of aortic pathology.