A 53-year-old male goes to the Emergency Department (ED) due to dyspnea for minor exertion and productive cough with a 4 days evolution. He had a known history of arterial hypertension, obesity, smoking and intermittent claudication. During his stay in the ED, he suffered cardiorespiratory arrest with recovery of spontaneous circulation after 6 minutes. During investigation, exuberant intraluminal calcifications are identified in the aortic arch/thoracic aorta, as well as aortic dissection, with associated thrombus in the thoracic segment (fig. 1a, 1b, 1c: red arrows). The case was evaluated by Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery that along with the ICU team reached to a consensus of lack of indication for surgical treatment. Medical therapy was then implemented, without success. The patient would eventually die in the Intensive Care Unit.

Fig. 1.

Intraluminal calcifications.