Back in 1992, Wall Street Journal reporter Kevin Helliker learned he had a thoracic aortic aneurysm. The series of articles he wrote the following year (some with co-worker Thomas Burton) about this often overlooked condition won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. Links to all of the articles are available on the Journal's Web site. An update on Helliker's decision to return to participating in the Chicago triathlon also makes for interesting reading.

The first-ever set of guidelines for diagnosing and treating thoracic aortic disease were recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.