Acknowledgments
The authors thank Dandan Jiang, a good wife and a loving mother of her family, for her contributions to the data collection and statistical review and for providing emotional support to Dr. Qu Chen.
Figure 1 CONSORT Diagram of Patient Selection
The CONSORT diagram of the patient selection process is illustrated in this figure. The definition of “uncomplicated” was based on the status of the syndrome after medical treatment (without signs of aortic rupture on admission and well controlled chest/back pain) and the radiographic findings from computed tomography angiography examinations upon admission (without periaortic hematoma or ulcer-like projection) [1][4]. Eligible uncomplicated type B IMH patients who refused further medical treatments and those without complete imaging records, laboratory test results and follow-up data were considered missing data. Patients who refused further treatment, who had incomplete imaging, etc., were excluded.