Early detection of aortic dilatation in ankylosing spondylitis using echocardiography.

Abstract

Aortic root abnormalities including cusp thickening, subvalvular stenosis, and mild aortic root dilatation are the most common cardiac complications in patients with long standing ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Twenty-three patients with definite idiopathic AS (New York Criteria 1966) and twenty-two matched controls were studied with M-mode echocardiography. Only one of the AS patients had clinical aortic incompetence. Six of the AS patients had mildly dilated aortic roots (normal less than 3.7 cm) with a mean diameter of 3.9 cm (range 3.8 to 4.00 cm). None of the twenty-two controls matched for age, sex and blood pressure had dilated aortic roots, with a mean diameter of 3.3 cm (range 2.9 to ..