A man in his 50s struck his chest against a brick wall in a car crash. He reported chest pain and a general feeling of illness, and weeks later he went into cardiac arrest in the hospital and could not be revived.
At autopsy, pathologists found that his aorta, the body's main artery, had ruptured. Its inner lining also had a bumpy, irregular, wrinkled texture that pathologists have long compared to tree bark, a pattern classically tied to an infection most people never connect with the heart: untreated syphilis.
