Aortic dissection at autopsy: a fifty-four year survey in Torino.

The Authors reviewed the postmortem findings of 36,671 autopsies performed from 1929 to 1982 in the hospitals of Torino with emergency ward. Two hundred and sixty-five cases of Aortic Dissection (A.D.) were found, and studied in relation to their frequency by sex and age, pathology, and antemortem diagnosis. The main outcome of this survey was the increasing frequency of the lesion in the autopsy population during the last 36 years considered, from 1/759 necropsies in 1947-1952, to 1/52 in 1977-1982. These data are discussed in relation to the hypothesis of a possible actual increase of A.D..