Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Before Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
Coronary Artery DiseaseAbdominal Aortic AneurysmCoronary artery disease (CAD) and abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) are two separate entities with common risk factors such as hypertension, advanced age, male sex. Atherosclerosis plays an important role in the etiology of both diseases. It has been reported that AAA is more prevalent in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Despite all the evidence, current guidelines do not recommend routine screening for AAA before CABG. Syntax score shows anatomical significance of CAD and is associated with the degree of atherosclerotic load. The investigators aim to investigate if there were any differences regarding AAA prevalence in high-SYNTAX patients versus intermediate/low-SYNTAX patients.
Incidence of Mortality and Complications After Lung Surgery, Open Thoracic Aortic Repair, TEVAR,...
MoralityLung Cancer2 moreLung surgery, open aortic surgery, TEVAR, and EVAR are major operations that carry a higher incidence of perioperative mortality and complications compare to other surgery. The study of the incidence of mortality and complications will help the hospital to benchmark with the others. Also the study of the risk factors of mortality and major complications will help to improve the patients' outcomes.
Transthoracic Ultrasound Evaluation of Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms
Thoracic Aortic AneurysmThe Diagnosis of a thoracic Aortic Aneruysms usually made when imaging an abdominal aortic aneurysm which has reached threshold or as an incidental finding during a chest scan by computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, these imaging modalities are expensive, involve radiation exposure and can cause anaphylaxis and other allergic reaction from the contract agents used. In addition CT scans are contraindicated for those who have: allergic reactions to the contrast, radioactive iodine treatment for thyroid disease, metformin use, and chronic or acutely worsening renal disease. Ultrasound is a non-invasive imaging modality that is cheaper than the methods currently used for TAA detection and surveillance. Echocardiography is limited in assessing the TAA as it is not sensitive to image beyond the proximal ascending aorta which is why it is currently not used for screening or surveillance. A pilot study found that ultrasound has the potential to be used as a diagnostic modality for thoracic aortic aneurysms and may have a role in surveillance in patients for whom CT scanning is contraindicated. They found that the sensitivity and specificity of detecting TAA was 100% and 70% for a threshold of 35 mm, and 84% and 90% for a threshold of 40 mm. However, further validation of this methodology is required for it to be considered as a method of diagnosis and surveillance for this patient group. This study was only carried out by one experienced sonographer so it important to repeat this study to see if other sonographers are able to obtain the necessary views. The main purpose of this study is to validate the protocol used by pilot study to assess whether thoracic aortic aneurysms can be detected and measured accurately using ultrasound. There are two main objectives of this study: Can ultrasound be used to detect thoracic aortic aneurysms? Can ultrasound be used to accurately measure thoracic aortic aneurysms? If the results of this study show that ultrasound has high sensitivity and specificity for detecting thoracic aortic aneurysms, it could lead to a thoracic aorta screening programme.
Study of Treatment of Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms and Dilatation in Combination With Tricuspid and...
Ascending Aorta AneurysmDilation of the Ascending AortaClarification of indications for surgical correction in patients with borderline expansion of the ascending aorta
Tonometry(1) and Duplex Ultrasound(2) to Predict CV Events in to be Treated Patients With an AAA...
Abdominal Aortic AneurysmCardiovascular EventsAbdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a common vascular disease and associated with risk of rupture, but also with a high cardiovascular (CV) event rate. A key difficulty in AAA is predicting these life-threatening complications, which are strongly linked to vascular health. In 2013, the SMART risk score was developed to calculate the risk of the patients for recurrent vascular events based on clinical characteristics. Recently, a novel, easy to perform, non-invasive test of endothelial function (the carotid artery reactivity (CAR) test), reflecting target organ damage, has been introduced. The CAR is a simple, quick (5-min), non-invasive test that uses ultrasound to examine the carotid artery in response to sympathetic stimulation by placing one hand in cold water. This test shows strong agreement with both coronary and aortic responses to sympathetic stimulation and predicted CV-events in patients with peripheral arterial disease. The aim of this prospective 2-year follow-up study is to investigate the predictive capacity of the CAR-test for development of CV-events after elective AAA repair in comparison to the SMART risk score. Secondary objectives are to investigate the predictive capacity of arterial stiffness measurements and the post-operative CAR-test for development of CV-events and to evaluate health status scores to provide insight if these scores can support clinical decision making.
Non-invasive Aortic Aneurysm Tissue Characterization Using Wall Viscoelasticity
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Without RuptureAbdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is an abnormal dilatation of the aorta in the abdomen due to a wall weakening caused by atherosclerosis. While indications for a rupture intervention are based on AAA maximal diameter (MaxD) (5 cm), 23% of ruptured AAAs are less than 5 cm and in large AAAs, rupture rate could be lower than expected. We propose to expand and validate our vascular ultrasound elastography software to 3D. Strain maps generated from radiofrequency (RF) data acquired from 30 AAA patients with a matrix-array 3D probe will be registered to conventional CT (phase 1) and validated to a biomechanical for characterization of AAA wall, assessing vulnerability and influence of surrounding tissues (phase 2). At the end of the project, we will have analyzed 3D strain maps to improve patient selection before surgery.
Genes Modulating the Severity of Aortic Aneurysms (MSF1-TGFBR2)
Thoracic Aortic AneurysmThis project concerns a population at risk of sudden death by dissection of the thoracic aorta. Its interest is to make it possible to recognize the genes that protect or worsen the evolution of aneurysms, to better understand the mechanisms involved, to detect and treat aneurysms of the thoracic aorta, wich is a pathology that is completely silent clinically until life-threatening complications. The variability in the severity of the disease within the same family is related to modifier genes. The objective is to find the modifying factors that account for the variability in the severity of the progression of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta.
QoL After Complex Endovascular Aortic Repair
Quality of LifeAortic Aneurysm2 moreThe goal of this prospective observational cohort study is to compare health related quality of life in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms treated by either standard or complex EVAR (endovascular aneurysm repair) devices. The main question it aims to answer are: Compare differences between the physical scores from the preoperative to the postoperative settings between patients treated with standard EVAR vs non-stnadard endovascular aortic repair (F-/BEVAR) To compare long-term physical scores postoperatively between patients treated with standard EVAR vs non-standard endovascular aortic repair (F-/BEVAR) at one year. To explore at which time points (if ever) patients treated with standard-EVAR and nonstandard endovascular aortic repair (F-/BEVAR) have restored or normalized physical scores measured by SF-12, measured at 30 days, 6 months, 1 and 3 years. Participants will be asked to fill out forms pre- and postoperatively with regards to health related quality of life. The different groups for comparison will be either standard EVAR for infrarenal aortic aneurysms or complex EVAR (fenestrated or branched) for paravisceral aortic aneurysms (PVAAA).
Biomechanical and Microstructural Properties of Ascending Aortic Aneurysms
Thoracic Aortic AneurysmsAn aortic aneurysm (thoracic or abdominal) is a permanent dilatation of the aorta caused by weakening in the arterial wall. The feared complication is aortic rupture or dissection, leading to potentially lethal aortic bleeding and associated with mortality rates up to 95%. The current diagnosis criteria do not suffice, therefore the goal of this study is the development of an improved biomechanics-based and microstructural-based diagnostic tool.
3D Holographic Guidance, Navigation, and Control for Endovascular Aortic Repair
Abdominal Aortic AneurysmThis is an Early Feasibility Study to evaluate the usability, safety and functionality of 3D holographic guidance, navigation, and control (3D-GNC) as an adjunct to and confirmed by fluoroscopic imaging to be used with Cook Zenith Flex AAA Endovascular Graft.