Aortic stent grafts.

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) occur when weakened areas of the abdominal aortic wall result in a ballooning of the blood vessel. Attributed risk factors include smoking, atherosclerosis and hypertension. Traditionally, AAAs were treated with open surgery, involving a large abdominal incision and the placement of a synthetic graft. The introduction of endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) however, proved to have many advantages over open repair, chief among which is a lower perioperative morbidity and mortality rate. EVAR is likely to continue to evolve and the complications associated with this procedure will likely continue to decrease. In the meantime, the benefit of the continued, detailed analyses of explanted devices is twofold: (1) for future development of new devices; and (2) cognisance of complications that arise with any new device. This review is a guide to the many FDA approved stents which are commercially available, and those likely to become available following clinical trials.

KIRs and autoimmune disease: studies in systemic lupus erythematosus and scleroderma.

We investigated killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) and the human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-C ligands for the corresponding inhibitory KIRs in Caucasian patients, 304 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 90 with scleroderma [or progressive systemic sclerosis (PSS)] compared with 416 Caucasian controls. Compared with controls, KIR2DS1 in the absence of KIR2DS2 was increased in both SLE (P= 0.04) and PSS (P= 0.02). Only 42% of KIR2DS1-positive PSS patients had the appropriate HLA-C ligand for the corresponding inhibitory KIR compared with 61% of KIR2DS1 positive controls (P= 0.02). In the PSS group the presence of at least either activating KIR2DS1 and/or 2DS2 was significantly increased in patients when compared with controls (P= 0.001). This suggests that KIR receptors play a role in susceptibility to both PSS and SLE.