Author: Christian Loewe, Vienna, Austria
Body Region: Cardiovascular
1. Patient Presentation
- A 63-year-old man was admitted because of chest pain.
- He had subfebrile temperature and slightly elevated C-reactive protein.
- Three years earlier he had undergone surgical replacement of the aortic valve and aortic root (Bentall procedure) due to aortic valve stenosis (bicuspid valve) and supravalvular aneurysm of the ascending aorta. On that occasion, he had developed unclear chest pain two months after the surgery. CT angiography of the heart and thoracic aorta had shown a regular postoperative course. The pain had subsided with medical treatment.
- On readmission 3 years later he underwent follow-up CT angiography of the heart and thoracic aorta to search for possible causes of chest pain (Figure 1).