Optimal diagnostic imaging of aortic dissection.

Without prompt diagnosis and treatment, aortic dissection is rapidly fatal. While standard chest radiography may give clues to the diagnosis of aortic dissection, suspected dissection can be confirmed by only 4 imaging techniques: aortography, echocardiography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging. The following review discusses each of these methods. It also explains why aortography, the previous diagnostic benchmark, has been replaced by newer techniques and why magnetic resonance imaging has become the diagnostic method of choice for imaging aortic dissection.