Cryoplasty for occlusive disease of the femoropopliteal arteries: 1-year follow-up.

Atherosclerosis of femoropopliteal arteries is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) has only limited success in treating these arteries, mainly because of the high rate of recurrent stenosis. Cryoplasty has been proposed as a technique which might improve treatment outcome. This study reports our single-center experience with cryoplasty. Thirty-two claudicants, 33 arteries, in whom conservative therapy failed, were consecutively included. Duplex ultrasound (US), angiography, and ankle-brachial index (ABI) measurement were performed before the procedure; ABI and duplex US, 2 weeks and 3, 6, and 12 months after the procedure. Patients' symptoms were categorized according to the Rutherford classification. Lesions were classified as TASC A, B, or C according to angiographic appearance. Differences in ABI before and after the procedure were defined as significant at p < 0.05 by paired t-test. Patency was evaluated using duplex US by determining the peak systolic velocity ratio. Sixteen TASC A lesions, 13 TASC B lesions, and 4 TASC C lesions were included. ABI improved significantly for TASC A lesions 2 weeks and 3 months postprocedure. Patency after 2 weeks, 6 months, and 12 months was 93%, 67%, and 64% for TASC A lesions, 83%, 31%, and 31% for TASC B lesions, and 100%, 50%, and 33% for TASC C lesions, respectively. In conclusion, cryoplasty has good immediate success rates and patency rates similar to the results of conventional PTA in the literature.

The influence of aneurysm size on perioperative cardiac outcome in elective open infrarenal aortic aneurysm repair.

BACKGROUND: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) size and growth has been found to be associated with local generation of inflammation markers such as interleukin-6. Inflammation also seems to be important in perioperative adverse cardiac events. We hypothesized that patients with a large AAA are at increased risk for cardiac events. METHODS: Consecutive patients who underwent a computed tomography angiography scan before open elective infrarenal AAA repair between March 2000 and December 2005 at three hospitals were analyzed. All patients were screened for the clinical risk factors of age, gender, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, heart failure, diabetes, stroke, renal failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as for cardioprotective medication. Postoperative data on troponin release, creatine kinase/creatine kinase isoenzyme MB, and electrocardiogram were routinely collected on days 1, 3, 7, and 30. The main outcome measure was the combined end point of 30-day cardiovascular death and nonfatal myocardial infarction. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the influence of AAA size on postoperative cardiac outcome. RESULTS: The study included 500 patients. Their mean age was 69.8 +/- 9.5 years, and 431 (86%) were men. Thirty-one patients (6.2%) had perioperative cardiovascular complications, consisting of 15 (3.0%) cardiovascular deaths and 16 (3.2%) nonfatal myocardial infarctions. After correction for other risk factors, including age, Revised Cardiac Risk Index, medication use, duration of surgery, and intraoperative blood loss, AAA size was independently associated with perioperative nonfatal myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death (3.2% increase in risk for each millimeter added, 95% confidence interval 1.1% to 6.2%, P = .007). CONCLUSION: A larger AAA size is independently associated with an increased incidence of perioperative cardiovascular complications after elective infrarenal AAA repair.