Investigation of commonly used aortic aneurysm growth rate metrics: Comparing their suitability for clinical and research applications.

An aneurysm is a pathological widening of a blood vessel. Aneurysms of the aorta are often asymptomatic until they rupture, killing approximately 10,000 Americans per year. Fortunately, rupture can be prevented through early detection and surgical repair.

Grip strength measurement for frailty assessment in patients with vascular disease and associations with comorbidity, cardiac risk, and sarcopenia.

Objective: Frailty is associated with adverse events, length of stay, and nonhome discharge after vascular surgery. Frailty measures based on walking-based tests may be impractical or invalid for patients with walking impairment from symptoms or sequelae of vascular disease. We hypothesized that grip strength is associated with frailty, comorbidity, and cardiac risk among patients with vascular disease.

In vitro skin expansion: Wound healing assessment.

For treatments requiring split-thickness skin grafts, it is preferable to mesh the grafts. This reduces the amount of excised skin and covers more wound area. The mesh technique, however, destroys surface continuity, which results in scarring.