Nissen AP, et al. - Researchers sought for aortic parameters that may assist in identifying patients that may be candidates for repair with an ascending aortic endograft. From their institutional acute type A aortic dissection (ATAD) database, they reviewed 100 consecutive patients with contrast-enhanced computed tomography imaging on an Aquarius iNtuition workstation (TeraRecon, San Mateo, Calif). They used curved planar reformatting (vessel tracking) and orthogonal views for measurements. Proximal intimal tears located outside the tubular ascending aorta was identified in 39%. Due to the presence of either a prosthetic aortic valve or significant aortic insufficiency led to exclusion of 30%, and due to the presence of patent coronary artery bypass grafts from the ascending aorta exclusion of 6% was done. If treatment consideration is given to cases with a maximum landing zone diameter of 42 mm and intimal tears as little as 20 mm distal to the distalmost coronary, only 8% of patients would have been candidates compared with 20% candidacy if treatment consideration is given to cases with aortic diameters up to 46 mm and intimal tears as little as 10 mm distal to the distalmost coronary. Inadequacy of the proximal landing zone was identified to be the most frequent single cause for exclusion. These findings suggest that on the basis of anatomic criteria alone, a minority of patients suffering ATAD would currently qualify for ascending aortic endografting.