Type A Aortic Dissection After Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair for Type B.

Type A aortic dissection (TAAD) has been associated with thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) for aortic conditions: dissection and aneurysm. Our purpose was to study a subset of patients who had an initial TEVAR for type B aortic dissection, followed by a TAAD, which was treated by open ascending aortic repair. Over a 6-year period, 171 consecutive patients underwent open ascending aortic repair for TAAD, of whom 21 (12%) had a previous cardiovascular procedure, 17 of which were endovascular.

Superlative performance in cardiovascular surgery.

Achieving excellence in surgery is an ongoing endeavor, gained through experience, observation, and practice. It is difficult to evaluate enterprise excellence, but attempts include the ratings of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The surgery team at Baylor University Medical Center has achieved three-star ratings for 9 of the past 10 evaluations for coronary artery bypass.

Discovery of pyrrolo[2,1-][1,2,4]triazine-based inhibitors of adaptor protein 2-associated kinase 1 for the treatment of pain.

Adaptor protein 2-associated kinase 1 (AAK1) is a member of the Ark1/Prk1 family of serine/threonine kinases and plays a role in modulating receptor endocytosis. AAK1 was identified as a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of neuropathic pain when it was shown that AAK1 knock out (KO) mice had a normal response to the acute pain phase of the mouse formalin model, but a reduced response to the persistent pain phase. Herein we report our early work investigating a series of pyrrolo[2,1-][1,2,4]triazines as part of our efforts to recapitulate this KO phenotype with a potent, small molecule inhibitor of AAK1.