OBJECTIVETo explore the differences in the characteristics of acute aortic dissection (AAD) among less and more economically developed countries with various cultures and races.

DATA SOURCESReports from the International Registry of Acute Aortic Dissection (IRAD) and the mainland of China (MC) were collected by searching the PubMed Database and the Chinese Journal Full-text Database from January 2000 to March 2009.

STUDY SELECTIONThose reports from IRAD and MC containing larger numbers of cases and complete patients' information were selected, which focused on concrete issues of diagnosing or managing AAD were excluded if they were not able to reflect the overall characteristics of this condition. And the data from the article containing the largest number patients reported by the same medical center in MC were taken into statistics.

RESULTSAAD patients from MC were significantly younger than IRAD countries and the percentage of male patients in the Chinese group was higher than IRAD countries (80.7% vs. 68.6%, P < 0.001). Patients in MC were less likely to present with typical symptoms and signs except for any focal neurological deficits. Different from the IRAD group, Chinese patients were prone to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to make the diagnosis of AAD (45.5% vs. 11.6%, P < 0.001). The in-hospital mortality was similar between 2 groups but only smaller proportion of AAD patients in MC underwent surgical or medical treatment.

CONCLUSIONSThe general characteristics of AAD patients in MC were shown and differences in some clinical variables between MC and IRAD groups still existed.