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Aortic Dissection
The Disease that Took John Ritter's Life
New Research Study
On September 11, 2003, the entertainment industry and general public were
shocked when beloved actor John Ritter fell ill on the set of his ABC sitcom, 8 Simple
Rules for Dating my Teenage Daughter, and died later that day. It was determined that
he suffered an aortic dissection.
Aortic dissection is the most common catastrophe affecting the aorta, which is the
large artery through which blood leaves the heart. Approximately 24 in every million
people are affected by it each year in the U.S.
Ritter was a household name from 1977-1985 when he starred as Jack Tripper on
the ABC sitcom Three's Company, the show for which he won an Emmy Award. Amy
Yasbeck met John Ritter in 1990 at a read-through of their 1990 movie Problem Child.
Yasbeck and Ritter eventually married and had a daughter.
Yasbeck is establishing the John
Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health
in his memory and to help educate
the general public about aortic dissection.
Also helping to teach the general
public more about aortic dissection,
the University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston (UT)
announced in June 2006 the receipt
of an 11.6 million dollar grant from
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute (NHLBI) to study aortic diseases.
The grant will allow UT to
create the Specialized Center for
Clinically Oriented Research in
Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and
Dissections, to be located in the
Texas Medical Center.
Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D.,
professor and Director of the
Division of Medical Genetics at UT,
will use the multi-million-dollar
grant to take the next step in her quest to prevent premature deaths from a stealthy disease
that kills people in the prime of their lives.
Dr. Milewicz, along with other researchers, has previously
identified some of the defective genes that cause the
inherited form of the disease that affects 20% of people
with aneurysms and dissections. Through DNA testing on
family members, early detection of those at risk has led to
further testing, which ultimately will save lives. The grant
will help scientists to study the pathological process to
develop new therapies and diagnostic tools for the disease.
"This is a first step toward understanding the disease
process leading to aortic aneurysms and dissections, so we
can go after better biomarkers, better imaging, and better
ways to predict outcomes," said Milewicz. "The ultimate
goal of the grant is to prevent premature deaths due to aortic dissection or rupture and hopefully lead to new
therapies to treat the disease."
UT is accepting participants for this research study; the
inclusion criteria are:
- Two or more persons in a family with a history of aortic aneurysms and/or dissections with an onset in individuals under age 50 years, or
- One person with early- onset aortic aneurysms/dissections (under age 50 years) and a relative with aneurysms/dissections in other parts of the body (cerebral, carotid)
For information about how to be part of this important research study, please contact 713-500-6865.
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