Morphological changes in the wall of the aorta in its dissecting aneurysm

: The paper describes 144 autopsy materials and 69 biopsy ones and shows possible morphological changes in the wall of the aorta in its dissecting aneurysm. Examinations were made by light and electron microscopy using special stains. Cases of arterial hypertension without aortic dissection were selected as a group of comparison. Varying degrees of structural changes were found in all layers of the aortic wall. In accordance with the predominant involvement of this or that component, the authors identified three types of changes: 1) those with the predominant involvement of the elastic skeleton; 2) necrotic and dystrophic changes in the smooth muscle cells to give rise to medial laminar and focal necroses; 3) nonspecific diffuse changes in all layers of the aortic wall, which are characteristic of aging processes. Comparison of morphological changes with those in the comparison group revealed those that appeared to be caused by previous aortic wall structural damages that gave rise to impaired elastic and collagen formation not only in patients with previously found connective tissue dysplasias.