Randomized controlled trial of vacuum therapy for intermittent claudication.

Objective: The "gold standard" treatment of intermittent claudication (IC) is supervised exercise therapy (SET). Intermittent vacuum therapy (IVT) has recently been promoted as an additional treatment of IC. During IVT, negative pressure and atmospheric pressure are alternatingly applied to the lower extremities, possibly resulting in improved circulation.

Prolonged stance phase during walking in intermittent claudication.

Background: Patients with intermittent claudication (IC) tend to walk slower and consume approximately 40% more oxygen during walking compared with healthy individuals. An unfavorable locomotion pattern has been suggested to explain this metabolic inefficiency. However, detailed knowledge of gait parameters in IC is lacking.

[Loeys-Dietz syndrome: aortic dissections and aneurysms].

Background: Loeys-Dietz syndrome is a connective tissue disorder accompanied by life-threatening vascular abnormalities such as aneurysms and dissections. Recognising the acute clinical picture is essential for rapid diagnosis and treatment.

Case Description: We describe three members of a family with a typical acute presentation of Loeys-Dietz syndrome, but without the characteristic physical abnormalities.

Median nerve neuropraxia by a large false brachial artery aneurysm.

Peripheral nerve compression is a rare complication of an iatrogenic false brachial artery aneurysm. We present a 72-year-old patient with median nerve compression due to a false brachial artery aneurysm after removal of an arterial catheter. Surgical exclusion of the false aneurysm was performed in order to release traction of the median nerve.

Preliminary intraobserver and interobserver variability in wall stress and rupture risk assessment of abdominal aortic aneurysms using a semiautomatic finite element model.

Objective: We investigated the intraobserver and interobserver variability of using semiautomatic finite element analysis to calculate the von Mises stress and peak wall rupture risk (PWRR) in patients with an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in longitudinal studies.

Methods: Four independent observers made 3-dimensional (3D) reconstructions, with minimal manual adjustments, of small AAAs (<5.0 cm) in 17 patients and processed finite element analysis.