[Aortic dissection and Horton arteritis].

Aortic dissection in a 61-year-old woman treated symptomatically and with a fatal outcome within three months by extension to the arch of the aorta and its major vessels, and as a direct result of haemopericardium. The association with temporal arteritis, presenting before the aortic complication by prolonged headache with raised sedimentation rate and painful inflammation of both temporal arteries, was confirmed by histopathological examination of the aorta. This revealed giant cell arteritis independent of atheromatous lesions. The association of aortic dissection and temporal arteritis is very rare. Clinical and pathological examination of the smaller arteries and in particular the craniocephalic arteries is therefore justified in all cases of aortic dissection. When it affects the aorta, temporal arteritis may favor aortic dissection as a result of changes in the media.