Impact of meteorological conditions on the incidence of acute aortic dissection

Background: There is still much controversy about whether meteorological conditions influence the occurrence of acute aortic dissection (AAD). The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible correlation between atmospheric pressure, temperature, lunar cycle and the event of aortic dissection in our patient population. Methods: The clinical data for 348 patients with AAD (73% type Stanford A) were confronted with the meteorological data provided by the Cologne weather station over the same period. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between meteorological parameters on days of AAD events compared with control days. A logistic regression model showed that air pressure (odds ratio [OR] 1.004, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.991-1.017, p = 0.542), air temperature (OR 0.978, 95% CI 0.949-1.008, p = 0.145), season (p = 0.918) and month of the event (p = 0.175) as well as presence of full moon (OR 1.579, 95% CI 0.763-3.270, p = 0.219) were not able to predict AAD events. Also, no predictive power of meteorological data and season was found on analysing their impact on different types of AAD events. Conclusions: Our study did not reveal any dependence of atmospheric pressure, air temperature or the presence of full moon on the incidence of different types of AAD.