Impending Aortic Rupture

Abstract

DURING the first half of the twentieth century roentgenology assumed the dominant role in the diagnosis of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta. With the coming of the pump oxygenator, however, even the sharpened diagnostic edge afforded by contrast visualization has begun to look a bit dull in spots. The contemporary radiologist no longer may discharge the obligations of his specialty through a static anatomic diagnosis, however correct, for it is not the lesion that the patient fears but rather what it will do to him if unchecked. To keep pace with his surgical colleague, the radiologist must not only describe . . .