Fever and inflammatory response as principal manifestation of chronic aortic type A dissection--a case report.

Aortic dissection usually presents with sudden onset of severe pain. Unfortunately, in more than half of these patients, the diagnosis is missed on admission. If the patient survives, the aortic dissection becomes chronic, whereas the patient may have few or minor symptoms. A rare manifestation may be subfebrile temperatures and inflammatory response. The authors describe a patient in whom aortic dissection resulted in night sweats, weight loss, and subfebrile temperatures.