New Guidelines For Aortic Disease Diagnosis and Management
The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association joint committee on clinical practices issued new guidelines for the diagnosis and management of aortic disease, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
The scope of the guidelines includes both abdominal and thoracic aorta and provides guidance for clinicians on syndromic, non-syndromic heritable thoracic aortic diseases (nsHTAD) and other congenital and medical causes of aortic disease, addressing:
- Diagnostic considerations
- Genetic evaluation
- Family screening
- Imaging measurement approaches and reporting frequency
- Surgical thresholds and repair considerations
- Long-term surveillance
- Comprehensive care for patients with multidisciplinary aortic team of experts
- Shared decision-making with experts and patients, to determine timing of intervention, optimal medical, endovascular and surgical therapies.
Click Here for the full guidelines
For more information and useful clinician and patient tools related to the Guideline, visit ACC's Aortic Disease Guideline Hub
These guidelines were written by a team of selected multidisciplinary aortic specialists based on their consensus opinion on published data. Two members from the Montalcino Aortic Consortium (MAC), Dr. Dianna Milewicz, Medical Geneticists, UTHealth in Houston and Dr. Alan Braverman, Cardiologist, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were part of the guidelines writing committee. GADA acknowledges Dr. Milewicz and Dr. Braverman for their expertise and insights on gene-based precision medicine from the MAC research findings, on the guidelines committee. GADA, a co-founder of MAC, is proud to fund the registries for MAC research.
We are honored to host a webinar on Wednesday November 23, 2022 @ 2 pm ET, with Dr. Dianna Milewicz, MAC Executive Chair and Dr. Jennifer Chung, Cardiovascular Surgeon, PMCC, Toronto, to talk about the new guidelines and how they affect clinical practices for those with genetic aortic disease. It will be a great opportunity to learn about the guidelines and ask questions.
Please join us for the webinar on November 23rd. The event is free, but registration is required to attend.
About the speakers:
Dr. Dianna M. Milewicz MD, PhD
Division Director, Professor, Vice-Chair, Medical Genetics. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Executive Chair, MAC Aorta - Montalcino Aortic Consortium
Dr. Milewicz, is the President George H.W. Bush Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, Director of the Division of Medical Genetics and Vice-Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) McGovern Medical School. She completed her postgraduate training in internal medicine, specialized further in medical genetics, and forged a career in translational studies focused on genetic predisposition to vascular diseases. She has received numerous honors and awards for her research, including the Antoine Marfan Award, the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award and the University of Texas Presidential Scholars Award for Excellence in Research. She has been inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Milewicz is the Past Chair of GADA Professional Advisory Board and continues to provide her expertise as an active member of the PAB. Dr. Milewicz is the Executive Chair of the Montalcino Aortic Consortium (MAC), managing the largest genetic Aortopathy research registry in the world.
Dr. Jennifer Chung MD, MSc, FRCSC
Cardiovascular Surgeon, Director Thoracic Aortic Surgery Clinic
Peter Munk Cardiac Center, Toronto General Hospital
Co-Program Director for the Advanced Aortic Surgery Fellowship
Dr. Chung is a Cardiovascular Surgeon with the Cardiac Surgery team at Toronto General Hospital. She studied Engineering Science at University of Toronto and Medicine at Queen’s University and completed residency in Cardiac Surgery at McGill University, during which she completed a Master’s of Science studying Aortic Biomechanics. She completed a fellowship in Advanced Aortic Surgery at the University of Toronto. The scope of her practice includes general cardiac surgery with a subspecialty in aortic surgery. She focusses on both open and endovascular repair of aneurysms of the aortic root, arch and thoracoabdominal aorta.