Diseases of the Aorta, Recent Insights

Aortic disease refers to a broad spectrum of conditions affecting the aorta and may present in a variety of forms, including aneurysm or dilation, and dissection or a tear in the lining of the aorta. These conditions of the aorta are often asymptomatic prior to life-threatening or highly morbid events such as aortic aneurysm rupture or dissection. Prevention of these events is essential and the only current prevention is with surgical resection and replacement of the aorta or relining of the aorta with stent grafts. Prevention also requires early identification of pathologies of the aorta. Imaging and aortic size are the main modalities for screening of aortic diseases. The indications for early imaging for identification of aortic disease remain sparse. Furthermore, there are no clinical laboratory biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity to screen for aortic disease. The recent growth of data and technology to enable single-cell transcriptomic, proteomic, and imaging-guided functional analysis of the aorta in health and disease states has created a new wave of investigations to elucidate and validate new biomarkers to identify aortic disease presence and progression as well as new targets to investigate underlying mechanisms of aortic disease.