Of the clinical practice guideline of the Japanese Circulation Society concerning aortic diseases, the Guidelines on Diagnosis and Treatment of Aortic Dissection (first edition) were published in 2000, followed by the Guideline for Diagnosis and Treatment of Aortic Aneurysm and Aortic Dissection (JCS 2006) with the addition of clinical practice guidelines for aortic aneurysm and their revised edition in 2011. 1 The present revision is the third and relatively extensive.

With aging of society, aortic diseases have increased, and the incidence of aortic dissection has been shown to be 10 or higher per 100,000 people annually according to its registry. Particularly, in Japan, under the high adoption rate of CT examination, aortic diseases can be diagnosed at many facilities and opportunities, and further improvements in the therapeutic results can be expected with further development of the diagnosis and treatment system including emergency transport. For this, transition from the conventional diagnosis and treatment system largely restricted to cardiovascular surgery to multidisciplinary approaches for the diagnosis and treatment participated in by cardiologists, radiologists, pathologists, clinical geneticists, general internists, clinical laboratory technicians, as well as cardiovascular/vascular surgeons, anesthesiologists, emergency care doctors, clinical engineers, and nurses is also necessary. Therefore, the present guideline was prepared by including a wide range of contents from basic matters to expert information to address the users’ objectives.