Advances in the Diagnosis of Aortic Disease

Dear Colleagues,

Background

Aortic diseases, namely aortic aneurysms, acute aortic syndromes (penetrating aortic ulcer, aortic dissection, aortic pseudoaneurysm, contained ruptured aortic aneurysm, intramural aortic hematoma, and traumatic aortic injury), aortoiliac occlusive disease, inflammatory aortic diseases, and genetic acropathies have long been a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for patients and healthcare professionals.

Sadly, the diagnosis of these ailments is often made incidentally by tests performed for other reasons or in the final moments when the aorta has ruptured, dissected, or occluded. Because of this, health professionals have been investing heavily into finding an efficient, cost-effective, and standardized diagnostic approach to these pathologies.

As technology advances at a vertiginous pace, it sometimes feels that a healthcare singularity of sorts will take place, where all of our health issues will be managed in a personalized manner with AI-powered decision making and orally administered gene editing.

Indeed, there is a plethora of scientific literature describing potent AI algorithms that assist in the diagnosis of aortic conditions. Many promising biomarkers that reflect aortic suffering are also being described.

Relevance

Aortic pathologies account for 2–3 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants globally.2 Expedited diagnosis and treatment are never easy tasks. The different features of each aortic disease, their high overall morbidity and mortality, the frequent difficulties in their initial diagnosis, and the absence of a definitive “aortic diagnostic test” still make these conditions a major hurdle to overcome for health services everywhere.

Objectives

In this Special Issue, we will try to summarize the current advances in aortic pathology diagnosis, specifically those relating to modern data processing technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) applied to radiological imaging, aortic tissue biochemical markers, and genetic and proteomic applications for aortic pathology screening, diagnosis, and surveillance.

Dr. James Henry Taylor
Guest Editor

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