CASE HISTORY

This was an incidental finding in a man who died of carcinoma of the floor of the mouth. He had been treated for syphilis in 1925.

PATHOLOGY

The specimen consists of the ventricular septum together with the first part of the aorta. The heart is normal size and appears healthy. In the ascending aorta there are two areas of thinning with local bulging. The smaller lies about 1cm above the commissures of the non-coronary cusp; the larger continues almost directly above the origin of the right coronary artery. If the specimen is held up to the light, obvious thinning of the aortic wall is readily visible. The lesions are above the line of the insertion of the aortic cusps and the latter are quite unaffected by the disease. Similarly, the aortic ring has not dilated and, therefore, there has been no effect upon the heart.