Intraluminal fibrous cord of the aorta in the differential diagnosis of aortic dissection.

A patient presented with an intraluminal fibrous cord in the distal segment of ascending aorta. On axial images, the fibrous cord had the appearance of an aortic dissection flap. Observation of continuous images and multiplanar reconstruction were critical for differential diagnosis. Volume render images showed both ends of the fibrous cord had tentiform attachments to the aorta inner wall, which indicating a congenital aorta anomaly. One possible hypothesis for the congenital variation might be the fifth primitive aortic arches remnant.