Abstract

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether the absence of a clinical pulse deficit can be used to exclude dissecting thoracic aneurysm in patients with chest pain. Altogether 89 papers were found using the reported search, of which one was a previous systematic literature review. A further two papers published since the review were also found. These three papers presented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these best papers are tabulated. A clinical bottom line is stated.