Acute traumatic aortic rupture: intravascular US findings.

Traumatic aortic rupture is a lethal injury that requires immediate diagnosis and surgical repair. The authors report a case of acute aortic rupture in which aortography demonstrated a subtle intimal discontinuity at the cephalic margin of the aortic spindle. Intravascular ultrasound (US) imaging of the aorta demonstrated a mural flap and a small, contained hematoma. Intravascular US may have a role in enabling confirmation or clarification of subtle aortic abnormalities.