Off-the-Shelf Strategy for Endovascular Aneurysm Repair of Ectopic, Dominant, Renal Artery Originating From the Aortic Bifurcation: Case Report.

INTRODUCTION: An ectopic renal artery originating from the aortic bifurcation can strongly interfere with surgical or endovascular intervention in the infrarenal aorta. CASE: We present an infrarenal symptomatic aneurysm with a right ectopic/pelvic kidney associated with 1 renal artery originating from the aortic bifurcation. RESULT: During an endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) procedure, the dominant ectopic right kidney was perfused by an iliac branch device (IBD) used as an iliac extension. However, out of instructions for use (IFU), this is an "off-the-shelf" resolution for this type of rare case. CONCLUSION: The use of an "off-the-shelf" IBD to perform an EVAR with an ectopic renal artery, in patients unfit for open surgery, is a potentially valuable option.

Extracellular Matrix Remodeling Factors as Markers of Carotid Artery Atherosclerosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 20 patients undergoing routine carotid endarterectomy and 40 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. MMPs activity and OPG and FN concentrations were measured in atherosclerotic plaques and nonchanged contiguous tissue after homogenization as well as in plasma from patients and reference group. The activity of MMPs was evaluated by gelatin zymography, and the concentration of OPG and FN was assessed by ELISA. RESULTS: OPG concentration and MMP-9 activity showed differences between plaque and nonchanged tissue; OPG was higher in adjacent tissue (P=0.0009), whereas MMP-9 was higher in plaque (proMMP-9 P=0.0003; MMP-9 P < 0.0001). The OPG plasma concentration and both MMPs plasma activity were higher in patients (OPG P < 0.001; proMMP-2 P=0.0292; and proMMP-9 P=0.0374), while FN plasma concentration was lower in patients than in the reference group (P=0.0004). The ROC curves analysis showed the highest AUC for OPG (0.943) with 85.0% sensitivity and 92.1% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: The atherosclerotic plaque and the contiguous artery wall are biochemically different. OPG shows the highest potential to be a marker of advanced carotid atherosclerosis.

Neurological complications after thoracic endovascular aortic repair. Does the left subclavian artery coverage without revascularization increase the risk of neurological complications in patients after thoracic endovascular aortic repair?

INTRODUCTION: One of the most severe complications after TEVAR is ischemic stroke and spinal cord ischemia (SCI) resulting in severe disability. These complications can be fatal up to 30% of cases, so it is very important to define risk factors associated with the occurrence of such events. The aim of this study was to define the causes and risk factors associated with the occurrence of neurological complications in patients after TEVAR. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 51 patients undergoing TEVAR in the Department of Vascular Surgery of Military Teaching Hospital in Wroclaw between 2014 and 2017. In 18 patients LSA coverage was managed without revascularization (35.29%), and in 33 patients LSA remained uncovered (64.71%). RESULTS: We did not find any statistically significant difference in the incidence of stroke and spinal cord ischemia in patients with covered and uncovered LSA (stroke p = 0.37, SCI p = 0.58). In the group of patients with covered and uncovered LSA, we did not find any significant differences in the incidence of additional comorbidities such as obesity, ischemic heart disease, hypertension or previous stroke. CONCLUSIONS: There is no difference in stroke and SCI occurrence between patients with covered and uncovered LSA. Although there are many studies analysing the risk of such complications, there is no specific consensus regarding the treatment of LSA coverage. Randomised clinical trials on a large group of patients are still needed.

The evaluation of the postoperative course in patients operated due to abdominal aortic aneurysm as urgent or elective procedure.

INTRODUCTION: The patients with the aortic abdominal aneurysm of 55mm in diameter are qualified for surgery. There is open repair (OR) by means of the vascular prosthesis implantation or the less invasive endovascular method by means of the stent graft implantation through femoral arteries incision (EndovascularAorticRepair - EVAR). The aim of the study was the evaluation of the postoperative course in patients operated due to the aortic abdominal aneurysm and the evaluation of the impact of the surgical method on the short-time results. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 124 patients operated due to the abdominal aortic aneurysm in Dept of Surgery of 4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw in 2014 were enrolled into the study: 53 patients with OR, 53 patients with EVAR, and 19 patients with a ruptured aneurysm. RESULTS: Mortality was 0% in EVAR and 6% in OR and 39% in a ruptured aneurysm. Time of hospital stay was 5.8 days in EVAR vs 10 days in OR. The stay in ICU was 0% in EVAR vs 13% in OR. Blood transfusion was 9.4% in EVAR vs 66% in OR. Time of postoperative analgesia was 27 h in EVAR vs 76.8 h in OR. Cardio-respiratory decompensation was 1.9% in EVAR vs 7.6% in OR. Renal insufficiency was 2% in EVAR vs 9% in OR. The lower rate of organ complications was in EVAR. The ruptured aneurysm presented the most complicated postoperative course: hospital stay of 11.4 days, ICU stay of 78%, blood transfusion of 100%, painkillers of 136 hours, cardio-respiratory decompensation of 81% and renal insufficiency of 69%. CONCLUSIONS: The method of treatment, the conditions of the admission and the type of surgery influenced the postoperative course. The elective EVAR patients presented both the 0% of mortality and the lightest postoperative course. The ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms operated as an emergency had the most complicated postoperative course.

Serum and urine metabolomic fingerprinting in diagnostics of inflammatory bowel diseases.

AIM: To evaluate the utility of serum and urine metabolomic analysis in diagnosing and monitoring of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). METHODS: Serum and urine samples were collected from 24 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), 19 patients with the Crohn's disease (CD) and 17 healthy controls. The activity of UC was assessed with the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index, while the activity of CD was determined using the Harvey-Bradshaw Index. The analysis of serum and urine samples was performed using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. All spectra were exported to Matlab for preprocessing which resulted in two data matrixes for serum and urine. Prior to the chemometric analysis, both data sets were unit variance scaled. The differences in metabolite fingerprints were assessed using partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Receiver operating characteristic curves and area under curves were used to evaluate the quality and prediction performance of the obtained PLS-DA models. Metabolites responsible for separation in models were tested using STATISTICA 10 with the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test and the Student's t test (α = 0.05). RESULTS: The comparison between the group of patients with active IBD and the group with IBD in remission provided good PLS-DA models (P value 0.002 for serum and 0.003 for urine). The metabolites that allowed to distinguish these groups were: N-acetylated compounds and phenylalanine (up-regulated in serum), low-density lipoproteins and very low-density lipoproteins (decreased in serum) as well as glycine (increased in urine) and acetoacetate (decreased in urine). The significant differences in metabolomic profiles were also found between the group of patients with active IBD and healthy control subjects providing the PLS-DA models with a very good separation (P value < 0.001 for serum and 0.003 for urine). The metabolites that were found to be the strongest biomarkers included in this case: leucine, isoleucine, 3-hydroxybutyric acid, N-acetylated compounds, acetoacetate, glycine, phenylalanine and lactate (increased in serum), creatine, dimethyl sulfone, histidine, choline and its derivatives (decreased in serum), as well as citrate, hippurate, trigonelline, taurine, succinate and 2-hydroxyisobutyrate (decreased in urine). No clear separation in PLS-DA models was found between CD and UC patients based on the analysis of serum and urine samples, although one metabolite (formate) in univariate statistical analysis was significantly lower in serum of patients with active CD, and two metabolites (alanine and N-acetylated compounds) were significantly higher in serum of patients with CD when comparing jointly patients in the remission and active phase of the diseases. Contrary to the results obtained from the serum samples, the analysis of urine samples allowed to distinguish patients with IBD in remission from healthy control subjects. The metabolites of importance included in this case up-regulated acetoacetate and down-regulated citrate, hippurate, taurine, succinate, glycine, alanine and formate. CONCLUSION: NMR-based metabolomic fingerprinting of serum and urine has the potential to be a useful tool in distinguishing patients with active IBD from those in remission.