aortic dissection

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

Lord Jim Wallace spent the final years of his life campaigning with the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust before sadly dying from the condition earlier this year.

Aortic dissection kills more than 2,000 people every year across the UK, with that number expected to double by 2050.

Greater awareness of the symptoms and a standardized pathway could improve prevention, treatment, and aftercare and would save lives.

Scotland has three specialist centers currently treating this condition, so we have a real opportunity to lead the way.

So in memory of Jim Wallace, will the First Minister commit to publishing national guidelines on the prevention, diagnosis, uh, treatment, and aftercare of aortic dissection?

First Minister.

Presiding Officer, there are many, many ways in which we could pay tribute to the legacy and the work of Jim Wallace, but Mr Harley puts an absolutely outstanding example on the parliamentary record today, and I very much associate myself with the comments that he made.

Hello and welcome to the Aortic Dissection Charitable Trust Podcast.

My name is Roy Shepherd and this podcast is designed to help those who are recovering from an aortic dissection as well as family members who are caring for someone who's been through that.

Now, this podcast isn't a clinical deep dive.

Instead, it's a space for open, honest discussion supported by clinical insight.

And this episode... is going to explore and investigate the perceptions and the reality of the demographic groups experiencing aortic dissection and to examine if there is or was a bias or a one-size-fits-all approach to care, research, and study.

And we have Charlotte Burrows, who's a patient, we'll be hearing from a little bit later on, although the discussion was, is she a patient or a survivor? Let's say she's a survivor as well.

We also have a clinician, Graham Cooper, who's a surgeon and an expert in aortic dissection.

Professor Julie Sanders is a professor of cardiovascular care in the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care at King's College in London.

And we had the updates from the AHA and the ASA on ischemic stroke.

And then finally, we also had a new ASAP clinical policy on aortic dissection.

So instead of, you know, making this like a journal club lecture, I wanted to just, you know, what are the high points? What are the take home messages? A couple from each of those topics for practicing docs in the community, something you can take to the bedside.

And that's why I called it 2AM.

All right.

So the next one is in honor of the passing of Lindsey Graham, which is ironic that this came out about the time is talking to me already.

Aortic dissection.

So this was the easiest part of the lecture.

Our next cause is cardiac tamponade, where fluid accumulates in the pericardial space and compresses the heart, impairing its function.

This can happen suddenly due to causes like aortic dissection or more gradually where fluid builds up.

Generally, if acute, less fluid is needed to generate tamponade.

If present in the context of pericarditis, this may feature sharp chest pain that eases by sitting forwards.

ECG may reveal electrical alternans where the amplitudes of the QRS complexes seem to alternate due to the fluid making the heart swing, but this is not always present.

Echo can confirm the diagnosis and emergency cases such as those in shock may need urgent pericardiocentesis.

Next, we have aortic dissection, where a tear forms in the innermost layer of the aorta, allowing blood to flow out and separate the layers, forming a false lumen.

It typically features a chest pain with tearing sensation with radiation to the mid-back.