Stent-supported coil embolization: the treatment of fusiform and wide-neck aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms.

OBJECTIVE: We describe a consecutive series of patients treated with endovascular stent-supported coil embolization for symptomatic or enlarging wide-neck and fusiform aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms of the carotid and vertebrobasilar arteries. METHODS: Seven stent-supported coil embolization procedures were performed for seven aneurysms in seven consecutive patients. There were five pseudoaneurysms, one dissecting aneurysm, and one berry aneurysm. Four aneurysms were located in the carotid artery, and three were located in the vertebrobasilar system. Three aneurysms were intracranial. Four patients were symptomatic, and three had angiographic evidence of increasing aneurysm size. RESULTS: Technical success was achieved in six (86%) of seven patients. Entanglement of a coil with the stent struts necessitated partial coil delivery into the parent artery in one patient, but there were no neurological or other adverse sequelae. The 30-day rate of periprocedural stroke or mortality was 0%. At a mean clinical follow-up of 14.5 months, neurological status was at baseline or better in all patients. To date, all treated patients remain clinically asymptomatic with oral administration of aspirin only. CONCLUSION: Stent-supported coil embolization represents an emerging therapeutic alternative to surgery for the treatment of symptomatic or enlarging wide-neck and fusiform aneurysms and pseudoaneurysms of the cervical and vertebrobasilar arteries, which are not amenable to conventional unsupported coil embolization. Experience with greater numbers of patients and long-term follow-up are required to further validate this technique.

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AIL-TCL) following macrolide administration.

Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy with Dysproteinemia (AILD) is a rare benign reactive process which often follows exposure to certain drugs such as penicillin. Treatment with corticosteroids usually reverses the process, however there have been reports of 18% of cases evolving into non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In our case report, we present a relatively healthy woman with history of various drug hypersensitivities who developed AILD and resultant lymphoma after treatment with azithromycin. A review of the literature has failed to find reports of AILD following macrolide exposure. Clonality, not present in other forms of hyperplasia, is present in AILD and immunosuppression may account for this difference. It is difficult to say whether the drugs are simply coincidently associated or actually cause, maintain, or exacerbate clonality in AILD and facilitate malignant transformation.