RARE DISEASERESEARCH ATLAS

ORPHA:91387

Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection

low confidenceDisorder

Also known as: FTAAD · Familial TAAD · Familial non-syndromic thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection · Hereditary TAAD · Hereditary thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection · Non-syndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease

Publications

10,648

Trials

0

Interventional, condition-specific

Researchers

1,366

Distinct authors in sample

Gene link

BGN, ELN, FBN1

Definitive

Readiness

3/6

Stages with a signal

Clinical definition (Orphanet)

Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection is a rare genetic vascular disease characterized by the familial occurrence of thoracic aortic aneurysm, dissection or dilatation affecting one or more aortic segments (aortic root, ascending aorta, arch or descending aorta) in the absence of any other associated disease. Depending on the size, location and progression rate of dilatation/dissection, patients may be asymptomatic or may present dyspnea, cough, jaw, neck, chest or back pain, head, neck or upper limb edema, difficulty swallowing, voice hoarseness, pale skin, faint pulse and/or numbness/tingling in limbs. Patients have increased risk of presenting life threatening aortic rupture.

How rare: <1 / 1 000 000 — fewer than one in a million. In a city the size of Kolkata, that might mean on the order of fifteen people.

Orphanet entry

Cross-references

Joined from Mondo / Orphanet. MeSH labels may enter searches; UMLS / OMIM / NCIT are stored for reference.

Additional Mondo synonyms (10)

Erdheim disease · familial TAAD · familial aortic dissection · familial non-syndromic TAAD · familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection · nonsyndromic HTAD · nonsyndromic familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection · nonsyndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease · ns-FTAAD · nsHTAD

Research stages

Trial readiness signals

Where this condition sits on an open-data research pipeline — not how close a treatment is, and not medical advice. Empty stages often mean “not in these databases under this Mondo ID,” not “impossible.”

3/6 stages with a signal

No matched interventional trial; the gene is known and literature exists — preclinical or natural-history work may still be the practical next step.

  1. Gene identifiedPresent

    Definitive — BGN, ELN, FBN1, FLNA, FOXE3…

  2. LiteraturePresent

    10,648 matched papers (7,304 in last 10 years) Source

  3. Phenotype characterisedPresent

    142 HPO annotations (e.g. Abnormality iris morphology; Hypertension; Aortic regurgitation) Source

  4. Animal modelNot found

    No Alliance genotype “model of” associations via Monarch for these Mondo IDs

  5. Orphan designationNot found

    No FDA or EMA orphan-drug designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name Source

  6. Interventional trialNot found

    No matched interventional trial under our ClinicalTrials.gov rules

Biology

Genes and phenotypes

Gene–disease validity from GenCC, plus phenotypes and animal models joined from Monarch Initiative via Mondo ID — not a clinical diagnosis aid.

Do we know what causes it?

Yes — we know a specific gene responsible (BGN, ELN, FBN1…).

GenCC classification: Definitive.

Phenotypes (Monarch / HPO)

142

Associated phenotypes · MONDO:0019625

  • Abnormality iris morphology
  • Hypertension
  • Aortic regurgitation
  • Coronary artery atherosclerosis
  • Tall stature

Showing 5 of 142 — open Monarch for the full list.

Animal models (Monarch / Alliance)

None returned for this Mondo ID. Empty here is not proof that no model organism work exists under another name or gene.

Monarch fetch 2026-07-29

Therapies

Designations, candidates, and chemicals

FDA OOPD and EMA orphan designations, Open Targets clinical candidates, and CTD chemical associations via MyDisease.info. These never change the interventional-trial headline.

Orphan designation (FDA · EMA)

No designation matched this disease via UMLS or preferred name on the FDA OOPD mirror or EMA orphan register. Absence here is not proof that none exists under another wording.

Open Targets candidates

No drugs or clinical candidates returned for this Mondo ID on Open Targets.

CTD chemicals (MyDisease.info)

No CTD chemical associations returned for this Mondo ID.

Literature

Is anyone studying this?

10,648

10,648 papers — among the better-studied rare conditions, though still a fraction of common-disease literature (breast cancer: over 700,000). Median papers in the last 10 years for a rare disease in this dataset (publications denominator n=3967) is 59.

10,648 papers since the earliest indexed year in this search — median last-10-year count for a rare disease in this dataset is 59 (publications denominator n=3967).

7,304 in the last 10 years · low confidence

Phrase hits: 497 · MeSH hits: 0

Open Europe PMC search

Who's working on it?

1,366

Distinct author names in 200 sampled papers — named people below.

Who's working on it?

No interventional trial matched this name; these authors publish on it in the sampled literature — a practical starting point for contact.

  1. 01
    Milewicz DM22 papers · 2026

    From the Departments of Internal Medicine (D.G., E.S.R., L.G., X.D., Z.R., B.C., E.M.H., D.M.M.) and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (A.E., H.J.S.), University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Center for Statistical Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (R.L.P.S.-C., S.M.L.); Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science, INSERM U1148, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., G.J., C.B.); Centre National de Référence pour le syndrome de Marfan et apparentés, Département de Génétique Moléculaire, AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., C.B.); Department of Pediatrics, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH (R.M.); Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, CA (D.L.); and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (M.J.B., J.S., D.A.N.). Dianna.M.Milewicz@uth.tmc.edu.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  2. 02
    Regalado ES10 papers · 2019

    From the Departments of Internal Medicine (D.G., E.S.R., L.G., X.D., Z.R., B.C., E.M.H., D.M.M.) and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (A.E., H.J.S.), University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Center for Statistical Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (R.L.P.S.-C., S.M.L.); Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science, INSERM U1148, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., G.J., C.B.); Centre National de Référence pour le syndrome de Marfan et apparentés, Département de Génétique Moléculaire, AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., C.B.); Department of Pediatrics, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH (R.M.); Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, CA (D.L.); and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (M.J.B., J.S., D.A.N.).

    Papers in Europe PMC
  3. 03
    Guo DC9 papers · 2019

    From the Departments of Internal Medicine (D.G., E.S.R., L.G., X.D., Z.R., B.C., E.M.H., D.M.M.) and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (A.E., H.J.S.), University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Center for Statistical Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (R.L.P.S.-C., S.M.L.); Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science, INSERM U1148, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., G.J., C.B.); Centre National de Référence pour le syndrome de Marfan et apparentés, Département de Génétique Moléculaire, AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., C.B.); Department of Pediatrics, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH (R.M.); Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, CA (D.L.); and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (M.J.B., J.S., D.A.N.).

    Papers in Europe PMC
  4. 04
    Prakash SK8 papers · 2026

    Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  5. 05
    Elefteriades JA7 papers · 2025

    Aortic Institute at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  6. 06
    Takeda N7 papers · 2026

    Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  7. 07
    Aizawa K6 papers · 2026

    Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacology, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  8. 08
    Braverman AC6 papers · 2023

    Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.

    Papers in Europe PMC
  9. 09
    Leal SM6 papers · 2016

    From the Departments of Internal Medicine (D.G., E.S.R., L.G., X.D., Z.R., B.C., E.M.H., D.M.M.) and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (A.E., H.J.S.), University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston; Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Center for Statistical Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (R.L.P.S.-C., S.M.L.); Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science, INSERM U1148, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., G.J., C.B.); Centre National de Référence pour le syndrome de Marfan et apparentés, Département de Génétique Moléculaire, AP-HP, Hôpital Bichat, Paris, France (P.A., C.B.); Department of Pediatrics, MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH (R.M.); Department of Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, CA (D.L.); and Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle (M.J.B., J.S., D.A.N.).

    Papers in Europe PMC
  10. 10
    Komuro I5 papers · 2026

    Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

    Papers in Europe PMC

Clinical research

Is a treatment being tested?

0

interventional trials for this specific condition

No interventional trial testing a treatment matched this specific condition name. 3 observational studies did — shown below because natural-history and cohort work can be an important step toward a trial.

Data as of 11 September 2026 · last trial check 11 September 2026

No matched interventional trials. This is true for 77.2% of diseases in the trials denominator (5501 of 7126). Here are the researchers publishing on it.

low confidence · 38.6th percentile (trials denominator)

Recruiting interventional trials

From the matched ClinicalTrials.gov set

No interventional trial testing a treatment was found for this specific condition name on ClinicalTrials.gov.

See who's working on it — people publishing on this disease are often the practical next contact when no trial is listed.

Observational and natural-history studies

3 observational studies match this condition. These do not test a treatment and are not counted in the interventional-trial headline, but they are genuine research: natural-history work often defines the endpoints needed for a future rare-disease trial, and families may be able to enroll.

None of the matched observational studies is currently listed as recruiting.

Open the complete matched search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Other registries (secondary)

Broader net from EU CTIS, ISRCTN, and ICTRP when available — deduped against ClinicalTrials.gov IDs already counted above. Dual-model LLM relevance gates what we keep. These rows are not added to the interventional headline.

raw 0 · after dedupe 0 · already on CT.gov 0 · kept 0 · parent 0 · uncertain 0 · dropped 0 · fetched 2026-07-30

Source notes: ictrp: Error: ICTRP public search unavailable (WHO portal is SPA-only; SOAP needs partnership). Tried: https://apps.who.int/tri

No secondary-registry studies passed dual-model relevance for this condition name (after dedupe).

Where to find support

Condition-specific patient organisations, when Orphanet lists them, are on the disease’s Orphanet page. We also link umbrella groups that support undiagnosed and ultra-rare families.

Orphanet entry for Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection — check Associations / patient organisations on that page.

India — NPRD

Last verified 2026-07-26

This ORPHAcode is not on our curated NPRD list (direct or Mondo-parent match). That does not decide clinical eligibility; families in India should ask a notified Centre of Excellence about current coverage.

Hand-curated for this project. ORPHAcode mappings are best-effort and may be incomplete or imprecise for umbrella categories. Parent (Mondo) matches mean the policy lists a broader category — confirm eligibility with a Centre of Excellence. Financial entitlements summarised from public policy statements and may change. This is not official government guidance.

How we counted this

Europe PMC query (preferred label + any corrected label + Orphanet and Mondo exact synonyms, stoplisted; unioned with resolved MeSH labels when available). UMLS / OMIM / NCIT cross-references are stored on the overview but are not added to the query string.

("Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "FTAAD" OR "Familial TAAD" OR "Familial non-syndromic thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "Hereditary TAAD" OR "Hereditary thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "Non-syndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease" OR "Erdheim disease" OR "familial aortic dissection" OR "familial non-syndromic TAAD" OR "nonsyndromic HTAD" OR "nonsyndromic familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection" OR "nonsyndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease" OR "ns-FTAAD" OR "nsHTAD") OR ("BGN syndrome" OR "BGN-related" OR "ELN syndrome" OR "ELN-related" OR "FBN1" OR "FBN1 syndrome" OR "FBN1-related")

Run this search on Europe PMC

ClinicalTrials.gov query (quoted phrases + MeSH via query.cond, plus recall-expansion terms when used):

"Familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "FTAAD" OR "Familial TAAD" OR "Familial non-syndromic thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "Hereditary TAAD" OR "Hereditary thoracic aortic aneurysm and aortic dissection" OR "Non-syndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease" OR "Erdheim disease" OR "familial aortic dissection" OR "familial non-syndromic TAAD" OR "nonsyndromic HTAD" OR "nonsyndromic familial thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection" OR "nonsyndromic heritable thoracic aortic disease" OR "ns-FTAAD" OR "nsHTAD"

Study-type breakdown: 0 interventional · 3 observational · 0 expanded access. Only interventional studies enter the trial headline.

Query health: ok — strategies attempted: phrase; with hits: phrase

Run this search on ClinicalTrials.gov

Confidence reasoning

  • Preferred label is multi-word and distinctive
  • No synonyms dropped by stoplist
  • "familial aortic dissection" also appears on ORPHA:229
  • Publication count (10648) is implausibly high for prevalence class "<1 / 1 000 000" — treat as possible over-matching, not a measure of research intensity

Ingested 2026-07-27T04:01:01.768Z