Tags: Disease.
Syphilitic aortitis (SA) is an inflammatory disease of the aorta associated with the tertiary stage of syphilis infection. SA begins as inflammation of the adventitia including the blood vessels that supply the aorta itself with blood the vasa vasorum. As SA worsens the vasa vasorum undergoes hyperplastic thickening of their walls thereby restricting blood flow and causing ischemia of the outer two-thirds of the aortic wall.