Patient Characteristics
A
total of 219 uncomplicated IMHA patients who initially received the
“wait-and-watch strategy” (initial medical treatment with TEVAR/open
surgery for aortic complications ) from
January
2010 to December 2016 were included and followed for at least three
years. The diagnosis of IMHA was confirmed by
electrocardiographic-triggered computed tomography angiography (CTA)
examination on admission. Uncomplicated IMHA patients are defined as
those without the presence of rapid aortic expansion, signs of aortic
rupture, fatal organ ischemia, recurrent or refractory pain, and
refractory hypertension despite adequate medical therapy[10][16] . Patients with traumatic aortic injury, aortic
valvular diseases (including bicuspid aortic valve [21] )
and genetic disease (diagnosed by pathology or genetic test) were
excluded. The definition of missing data was as follows: patients who
refused any medical therapy on admission, those without CTA images to
estimate the evolution of IMHA, those without complete data and those
lost to follow-up (see the details of the CONSORT diagram inFigure 1 ).