Ultrasonic measurement of superficial extremity veins is a common procedure. To establish normal values for vein-size in a population of vascular patients and to assess if measurements remain unchanged over time, we analyzed a database with results of 28,130 measurements in 2420 separate saphenous and 3206 cephalic veins. Mean size ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to estimate the performance measures of MR angiography (MRA) in the diagnosis of aneurysm residual flow after coil occlusion. METHODS: Patients having at least 1 cerebral aneurysm treated with coil occlusion were prospectively and consecutively enrolled. Time of flight and contrast-enhanced ...

Purpose: Arteries continuously respond to changing tissue demands and to hemodynamic conditions by altering their diameter and wall structure. The relatively slow dilatation of the feeding artery of vascular accesses continues at least two years after access creation with a continuous decrease in wall shear rate (WSR), which however, remains ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to establish whether adiponectin may act as an independent risk factor of coronary artery disease (CAD) and if adiponectin has potential relations with a new marker of cardiovascular risk -intima-media thickness (IMT). METHODS: 165 patients, who had undergone coronary angiography due to symptoms ...

Little is known about the intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) minimal lumen area (MLA) criteria and their accuracy in lesion subsets assorted according to vessel type, lesion location, vessel size, and clinical settings. We therefore assessed the accuracy of subgroup-specific cut-off values in predicting fractional flow reserve (FFR) <0.80. In total 692 ...

The goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of postmortem multi-computed tomography (MDCT) and MDCT-angiography for sudden cardiac deaths related to ischemic heart disease. Twenty three cases were selected based on clinical history and the results of native MDCT, multiphase post-mortem CT-angiography and conventional autopsy were compared. ...

INTRODUCTION:: The ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI), derived from ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) recordings, has been proposed as a surrogate marker of arterial stiffness. However, there is controversy to what extent it reflects stiffness or is affected by other parameters. Using a previously validated one-dimensional computer model of the ...

The purpose of this study was to assess the parallel artery and vein sign at color Doppler breast ultrasound as a predictor of the benign nature of breast masses. A prospective study was performed to identify evidence of a parallel artery and vein in breast lesions consecutively biopsied with a ...

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the computed tomographic appearances of mesentery in acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) to recognize characteristic features and their prognostic values. METHODS: Computed tomographic examinations of 34 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of AMI were retrospectively reviewed to evaluate the number of mesenteric vessels, diameter of the superior mesenteric ...

INTRODUCTION: Intracranial carotid artery atherosclerotic disease is an independent predictor for recurrent stroke. However, its quantitative assessment is not routinely performed in clinical practice. In this diagnostic study, we present and evaluate a novel semi-automatic application to quantitatively measure intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) degree of stenosis and calcium volume ...

Hyperperfusion syndrome (HPS) is a rare but severe complication after carotid artery stenting (CAS). Reliable methods for predicting HPS remain to be developed. We aimed to establish a predictive value of hemorrhagic HPS after CAS. Our retrospective study included 136 consecutive patients who had undergone CAS. We determined the cerebral ...

Heartworm Associated Respiratory Disease (HARD) is a pulmonary syndrome that results from the vascular and parenchymal inflammatory response associated with the arrival and death of Dirofilaria immitis in the distal pulmonary arteries. Barometric whole-body plethysmography (BWBP) is a non-invasive pulmonary function test (PFT) that allows a dynamic study of breathing ...

AIM: To study Doppler changes in the uterine artery immediately and 3 months after uterine artery embolization (UAE) and to test the feasibility of using uterine artery Doppler as a predictor of the predominant side of arterial supply to leiomyomas, amount of embolizing material needed and leiomyoma tumor volume at ...

PURPOSE: (18)F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/CT has the potential to track vascular inflammation and monitor therapeutic response. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between arterial inflammation, calcification and serological biomarkers in subjects with atherosclerosis, and to assess their therapeutic response to 12-week atorvastatin treatment. METHODS: ...

Aim: To investigate the prevalence and geographical variation of high arterial stiffness in groups from the Amami islands (Amami) and Kagoshima mainland (mainland), Japan, using the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) as a surrogate marker of arterial stiffness.Methods: We recruited 4,523 health checkup examinees from Amami and 440 examinees from the ...

Background and Purpose: Echogenicity of atheroma carotid plaques is related to a higher risk of stroke. Clinical and subjective ultrasound criteria are used to identify symptomatic plaques, but the standardized grayscale median (GSM) value may be an objective tool for this diagnosis. Our aim was to analyze the utility of ...

PURPOSE: This study was performed to evaluate whether dynamic computed tomography (CT) can provide functional vessel information predicting outcomes of aortic neck in patients undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty patients with and 20 without AAA were enrolled. Electrocardiographically (ECG)-gated data ...

PURPOSE: The authors assessed the effect of vascular attenuation and density thresholds on the classification of noncalcified plaque by computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients (men 25; age 59±8 years) with stable angina underwent arterial and delayed CTCA. At sites of atherosclerotic plaque, attenuation values (HU) ...

BACKGROUND: An echocardiographic quantitative evaluation of the cardiac and vascular structures is often of critical importance for the diagnosis and management of congenital heart diseases. The authors reviewed the accuracy and limits of published echocardiographic nomograms for cardiac chamber, valve, and main vessel dimensions in children, with special attention to ...

BACKGROUND: Arterial stiffness parameters are commonly used to determine the development of atherosclerotic disease. The independent predictive value of aortic stiffness has been demonstrated for coronary events. HYPOTHESIS: The aim of our study was to compare regional and local arterial functional parameters measured by 2 different noninvasive methods in patients ...

OBJECTIVES: Arterial punctures represent a painful and unpleasant experience. Acid-base and oxygenation status can be assessed from peripheral venous blood, but agreement with arterial values is not always clinically acceptable. This study evaluates a method for mathematically transforming peripheral venous values into arterial values in emergency medicine patients. METHODS: Paired ...

BACKGROUND: Most studies have investigated the diagnostic accuracy of 64-slice multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) to detect coronary artery stent patency by using conventional coronary angiography (CCA) as the reference standard. In this study, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of MDCT and CCA by using intravascular ultrasonography (IVUS) as the reference ...

Despite the fact that abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is asymptomatic in the vast majority of cases, sudden rupture with a fatal outcome may still occur. Early planned resection or endovascular aneurysm repair of small AAAs may help prevent a rupture, but both methods are associated with significant mortality. The aim ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of dual-source computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) compared to coronary angiography (CAG) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) for detection and quantification of in-stent restenosis after left main (LM) coronary artery stenting. Fifty-one patients with percutaneous coronary intervention of the LM ...

The selection of patients with cervical internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO) for extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery is based on exhausted cerebrovascular reactivity to vasodilatory stimuli. However, a spontaneous increase in this reactivity can occur with time, questioning the ideal time for bypass surgery. In contrast, the natural course of dynamic cerebral ...

Coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) assessment of calcified or complex coronary lesions is frequently challenging. Transluminal attenuation gradient (TAG), defined as the linear regression coefficient between luminal attenuation and axial distance, has a potential to evaluate the degree of coronary stenosis. We examined the value of TAG in determining the ...

AimsThere are few reports demonstrating a relationship between carotid artery ultrasound (carotid-US) findings and the complexity of coronary artery disease. We aimed to examine the relationship between carotid-US findings and the severity of the SYNTAX score (SXscore).Methods and resultsSubjects were 501 consecutive patients who underwent carotid-US and first coronary angiography ...

Arterial distensibility can be measured either by echotracking or by nuclear magnetic resonance (MRI). Little information, however, is available on the comparison between the two methods and on the relationships between the results obtained with the two approaches and the arterial stiffness gold standard measurement, i.e., pulse wave velocity (PWV). ...

The aim of this paper was to study the characteristics of three distending small abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs), with an increase in maximal diameter from 5 to 5.5 cm or above. Peak Wall Stress (PWS) in the presence and absence of intraluminal thrombus (ILT) was evaluated in 3 cases of ...

The study was designed to investigate the relationship between ankle-brachial index (ABI) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), and provide scientific basis for primary and secondary prevention of atherosclerotic diseases. Participants were recruited for this investigation from Inner Mongolia in China through cluster multistage and random sampling. ABI and carotid-IMT were ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Intracranial atherosclerotic disease is associated with a high risk of stroke recurrence. We aimed to determine accuracy of transcranial Doppler screening at laboratories that share the same standardized scanning protocol. METHODS: Patients with symptoms of cerebral ischemia were prospectively studied. Stroke Outcomes and Neuroimaging of Intracranial Atherosclerosis ...

BACKGROUND: Surveillance conventional coronary angiography (CCA) is recommended after stent supported percutaneous coronary intervention due to the unpredictable occurrence of in-stent restenosis (ISR). We explored the ability of 64-slice computed tomography angiography (CTA) to detect ISR after stenting of the coronary artery and analyzed the factors influencing imaging quality. MATERIALS ...

We sought to compare the inferior vena cava diameter measured by transthoracic echocardiography and by transesophageal echocardiography in human and animals. Transthoracic echocardiography yielded lower inferior vena cava diameter values than transesophageal echocardiography. Adult and pediatric intensivists should pay attention to the risk of false measurement of the inferior vena ...

This study aimed to investigate the predictive accuracy of carotid and cavernosal Doppler ultrasound findings for discriminating patients with vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (ED). Fifty patients with complaints of ED were included. B-mode ultrasound of bilateral carotid arteries were performed and peak systolic velocity (PSV), end-diastolic velocity (EDV) and intima-media thickness ...

Although the cerebral aneurysm clip "scissoring" phenomenon is known to occur due to twisting of the aneurysm clip blades during surgery, there have been few previous studies of scissoring. In the present study, we examined the in vitro endurance of clip twisting to assess clip scissoring. To evaluate the clip-scissoring ...

SUMMARY:Elastase incubation was performed in the LCCA in 13 New Zealand white rabbits. Three weeks after incubation, DSA demonstrated that 10 (10/13, 77%) bifurcation-type aneurysms at the origin of the LCCA were present; mean aneurysm neck, width, and height values were 3.7 ± 1.1, 3.8 ± 0.9, and 8.7 ± ...

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Cross-sectional imaging is being increasingly proposed as a suitable tool to characterize carotid plaques. The aim of this work was to correlate the Doppler velocity parameters with the cross-sectional percent stenosis (CPoS) of internal carotid artery (ICA) and to identify the cutoff values of these parameters in ...

We aimed to evaluate the correlation of angiographic late loss (LL) with the degree of in-stent neointimal proliferation assessed by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and histology. Angiographic LL is the most common endpoint used in clinical trials for the evaluation of the efficacy of drug-eluting stents (DES). However, there are ...

Objectives: Evaluate echocardiographic predictors of pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) in a prospective cohort of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Methods: 38 patients with SSc who did not have PAH and significant left heart disease, with peak tricuspid regurgitant velocity (TRV) ≤ 2.8 m/sec and systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) < ...

AIMS: Accelerated flow at the site of flow-limiting stenosis can be detected by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE). We studied feasibility and accuracy of sequential coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) and TTDE in detection of haemodynamically significant coronary artery disease (CAD). METHODS AND RESULTS: We prospectively enrolled 107 patients with intermediate ...

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Ideally the length of the Intraaortic balloon membrane (22-27.5cm) should match to the distance from the left subclavian artery to the celiac axis (LSA-CA) . By being able to estimate this distance, better guidance regarding Intraaortic balloon sizing could be recommended. METHODS: Internal aortic lengths and demographic values ...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of advanced software assistance on the assessment of carotid artery stenosis; particularly, the inter-observer variability of readers with different level of experience is to be investigated. Forty patients with suspected carotid artery stenosis received head and neck dual-energy CT angiography ...

Availability and utilization of computed tomography angiography has been increasing recently. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of low amount of contrast media and low kV value in order to reduce possible side effects of contrast media and to provide optimization of kV value in the evaluation of the carotid ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess radiation dose and diagnostic image quality of a low-dose (80 kV) versus a standard-dose (120 kV) protocol for computed tomography angiography (CTA) of the supra-aortic arteries. METHODS: 64-slice CTA of the supra-aortic arteries was performed in 42 consecutive patients using randomly either 80 or 120 kV at 300 absolute mAs. ...

BACKGROUND: Interatrial septal anomalies, which include atrial septal defect, patent foramen ovale, and atrial septal aneurysm, are common disorders among adult patients. Early detection of interatrial septal anomalies is important in order to prevent haemodynamic consequences and/or thromboembolic events. Electrocardiogram offers some clues that should serve as hints for detection ...

Regions of turbulence downstream of bioprosthetic heart valves may cause damage to blood components, vessel wall as well as to aortic valve leaflets. Stentless aortic heart valves are known to posses several hemodynamic benefits such as larger effective orifice areas, lower aortic transvalvular pressure difference and faster left ventricular mass ...

INTRODUCTION:: Studies have shown that atherosclerosis in coronary arteries is closely related to that in carotid arteries, but there are few investigations on the correlation between unstable plaques in these 2 vascular beds. The authors aim to investigate the correlation between coronary plaque phenotype and carotid plaque composition. METHODS:: Patients ...

The aim of this work is to examine the role of circulating platelet aggregates (CPA) at pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXG), haemodynamic changes in the ophthalmic artery by ultrasonic color Doppler, searching for visual field progression. Vascular component at PXG and its role in VF progression dynamics has not been sufficiently explained, ...

Aims: Fractional flow reserve (FFR) of <0.8 or 0.75 is currently used to guide revascularisation in lesions with intermediate coronary stenosis. We assessed whether there is an intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) measurement that can reliably be used to predict when patients should undergo intervention. Methods and results: The analysis included 92 ...

Few studies have addressed the relationship between starting hemoglobin (Hb) value and early phase prognosis after liver transplantation (OLT). The aim of our study was to determine the relationship between the starting Hb value and the early phase prognosis after OLT by retrospectively reviewing the medical records of 102 consecutive ...