Today is Topic Tuesday with Aortic Hope and we want to go back to basics.
Let's start with The Aorta.
The aorta is the largest artery in the body. Oxygen-rich blood enters the aorta and the heart pumps the blood out of the aorta where it travels to the rest of the body via the smaller arteries that branch out from it.
When affected by disease, the aorta can split (dissection) or dilate (aneurysm) and in either case, the rupture may have fatal results.
Three types of aortic aneurysms can be classified as: -Abdominal aortic aneurysms
-Thoracic aneurysms -Thoracic abdominal aneurysms
A variety of diseases and conditions can cause damage to the aorta and put patients at great, life-threatening risk. Those conditions include: -Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). -Hypertension (high blood pressure). -Genetic conditions (such as Marfan Syndrome). -Connective tissue disorders (such as Ehler-Danlos disorder, polychondritis, scleroderma, osteogenesis imperfecta, polycystic kidney disease and Turners Syndrome).
-Injury.
Click on this link to read more details about the aorta from an article from WebMD written by Matthew Hoffman, MD entitled, Picture of the Aorta, Human Anatomy.
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