Report of Two Cases of Calcified Atheroma at the Arch of the Aorta

Abstract

THE finding of a calcified atheromatous patch in the wall of a saccular aneurysm of the descending aorta just beneath the arch, led me to review the literature, as to the frequency of this finding radiographically. The number of reported cases is exceedingly few. Koehler made an X-ray diagnosis of calcium deposits in the aortic arch in two patients, and demonstrated the plates at the Roentgen Congress in 1911. A. E. Garrod and G. Evans made a diagnosis of atheroma of the arch of the aorta by means of a skiagram. The postmortem examination was made twelve hours after death, confirming the diagnosis. The whole of the aorta, from its origin to its bifurcation, was in a condition of extreme atheroma with numerous calcified plaques. Billiard was able to show on an X-ray plate a case of particularly complete visibility of the thoracic aorta. C. R. Scott, by means of a radiograph, demonstrated a marked sclerosis of the abdominal aorta. E. Boden reports that in examining thirty–six patients, between the ages of f...