When Catastrophe Strikes, ‘Think Aorta’

Vascular and cardiac surgeons in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai know all too well the danger that looms when a patient experiences a tear in their heart’s main artery, called an aortic dissection. The condition, however, is often mistaken by patients—and even some physicians and nurses—for a heart attack, which can delay diagnosis and subsequent lifesaving surgery.