Clinical and pathologic findings of aortic dissection at autopsy: Review of 336 cases over nearly 6 decades.

Background: We aimed to characterize the clinical and pathologic findings of aortic dissection (AD) over a nearly 60-year period.

Methods: The Jesse E. Edwards Registry of Cardiovascular Disease database was queried for cardiac specimens from autopsies with AD as a diagnosis and compared 2 cohorts: early (1956-1992) and current (1993-2015).