Aortic root & sinuses

Looks like

The first bulb of the aorta just above the aortic valve, with three pouches behind the cusps from which the coronary arteries arise.

What it does

Supports the aortic valve and feeds the heart's own arteries.

Keeping it well

It widens in Marfan syndrome, with a two-cusp valve and with high blood pressure; people with these have it measured regularly by scan, because a stretched root can tear or leak.

Related conditions

• Aortic aneurysm
• Aortic dissection
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Hypothermia & frostbite
• Kawasaki disease
• Marfan syndrome & connective tissue disorders
• Metabolic syndrome
• Orthostatic hypotension & POTS
• Peripheral artery disease
• Phaeochromocytoma & hyperaldosteronism
• Pre-eclampsia
• Raynaud's phenomenon
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Takayasu arteritis
• Turner syndrome
• Vasculitis (GCA & others)