J Biomech 2022 May 10;138:111133. Epub 2022 May 10.
Laboratory of Biomechanics, Center of Clinical, Experimental Surgery, and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece. Electronic address:
Aortic dissection often initiates a few centimeters distal to the coronary ostia in the right lateral wall, with an intimal-medial tear that tends to be transversely directed and occupy half of the aortic circumference, sometimes less, but seldom the entire circumference. To elucidate these clinical observations, tear tests were presently used to determine the layer-specific resistance to tear propagation in ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms, assessing variations over the four circumferential quadrants and two directions. Aneurysmal tissue strips of standardized dimensions from sixteen patients were anatomically separated into layers (seven hundred and twelve) and an incision made along one-third of their length. Read More