The thoracic aortic aneurysm is one of the “most dangerous” heart diseases, once ruptured, the success rate of rescue is extremely low. Yesterday, we learned from the Downtown Hospital that a team of hospital experts has found the causative gene for thoracic aneurysm in the Chinese population and has also achieved preliminary results in drug prevention. This means that surgical treatment will no longer be the only way for patients, and drug treatment will become possible. The most dangerous heart disease: no warning, rapid onset The thoracic aorta is the heart’s main “oil pipeline”, which pumps blood from the heart to the body’s major organs. The research team leader, Professor Xia Jiahong, president of the Downtown Hospital, introduced yesterday that the thoracic aortic aneurysm is not a real tumor, but an aneurysm-like structure formed by the local outward expansion of the thoracic aorta due to various reasons. The aneurysm keeps growing, just like a time bomb buried in the heart, and once it ruptures, the success rate of salvage is almost zero. What is even more frightening is that patients usually have no warning before the onset of the disease. Previously, due to a lack of understanding of the intrinsic mechanism, doctors could only respond after the onset of the disease, by which time most of the damage had already been done. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for thoracic aneurysms, and surgical mortality rates are as high as 20-30%. New findings make screening and drug prevention possible Experts explain that three years ago, experts initiated research into the genes responsible for thoracic aortic aneurysms. After sequencing the genes of more than 700 normal people and 200 patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms in China, experts identified three genetic mutations in the population with thoracic aortic aneurysms. It is this gene mutation that causes the cellular changes that lead to the expansion of the thoracic aorta and trigger the aneurysm. Experts say that when the genes are found, they can be used to screen people at risk for the disease and also make drug prevention and treatment possible. At present, drug intervention experiments have also achieved initial success. It is reported that the publication of this result breaks the zero record of scientific research results published by scientists in JCI journals.