Preliminary results of Anaconda aortic endografts: a single center study.

Objective: To evaluate the peri-operative results of Anaconda endograft in the first 49 cases treated in a single centre.

Methods: The study was carried out prospectively on cases of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) treated with Anaconda endograft. The characteristics of the proximal aortic neck and of the iliac access vessels were considered.

Fluidodynamic evaluation of arteriovenous fistulae for hemodialysis.

Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) are commonly used in dialysis treatment of uremic patients. However, many AVF create problems and have to be re-examined. Problems arise in the cannulation site and must be treated with antibiotics, and stenosis, both in the arterial and in the venous side of the AVF.

Analysis of agreement between Duplex ultrasound scanning and arteriography in patients with lower limb artery disease.

Background: Angiography is the gold standard for therapeutic decision-making in lower limb artery disease. However, both the potentiality and safety of Duplex ultrasound scanning suggest that it may become the main diagnostic tool. The present study aimed to investigate the agreement between Duplex scanning and angiography in the diagnosis of stenosis in lower limb artery disease.

Renovascular impedance correlates with portal pressure in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Purpose: To prospectively evaluate, in patients with liver cirrhosis, the correlation between the renovascular impedance measured by using color flow and pulsed wave Doppler ultrasonography (US) and the portal pressure measured by using the hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG).

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the senior staff committee (comparable to institutional review board) of the university hospital, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. Thirty-one patients with cirrhosis (22 men, nine women; mean age, 57.

[Refractory hypertention in a female patient with renal failure].

We report one sixty-seven years-old female who presented with hypertension refractory to antihypertensive drugs. She had an elevated BP for approximately 15 years. In the last 8-10 months her hypertension had become difficult to control.

Use of perfusional angiosonography in liver transplantation and conservative management of post-transplant intra-hepatic pseudo-aneurysm.

Hepatic artery pseudo-aneurysm is a rare but severe complication of liver transplantation, which generally requires immediate surgical or angiographic treatment. The diagnosis is usually made by splanchnic percutaneous angiography. We report a case of an intra-hepatic pseudo-aneurysm after surgical correction of a thrombosed hepatic artery and its successful response to conservative management.

Usefulness of contrast-enhanced perfusional sonography in the assessment of hepatocellular carcinoma hypervascular at spiral computed tomography.

Background/aims: Diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) relies strongly on the detection of hypervascularity in the arterial phase and, in this setting, spiral computed tomography (CT) is the most widely used method. This prospective study aimed to investigate the usefulness of low mechanical index harmonic ultrasound (US), using a second generation contrast-enhanced technique, in the assessment of vascular pattern of HCC shown to be hypervascular at spiral CT.

Methods: A total of 79 cirrhotic patients with 103 nodules (mean+/-SD 28+/-13 mm) with arterial hypervascularity at spiral CT were studied.

Renovascular disease in diabetes mellitus: treatment by percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is an important cause of end-stage renal failure (ESRF). Although classic diabetic nephropathy accounts for the majority of patients reaching ESRF, renovascular disease, which is frequent in such patients, plays an increasingly important role. Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) has been proven to be an efficacious measure for renal revascularization.

Renal artery angioplasty for renovascular hypertension and preservation of renal function: long-term angiographic and clinical follow-up.

Objective: Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of stenoses of the renal artery can be used to treat hypertension and renal insufficiency. Although many studies have been published on the short-term results of this procedure, few long-term studies are available.

Subjects And Methods: One hundred ninety-five patients (123 men and 72 women 19-79 years old; mean age, 56 years) with stenosis of the renal artery and hypertension underwent renal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty at our institution.

[Color-Doppler and angioplasty in renovascular hypertension].

Renovascular hypertension is defined as a kind of hypertension secondary to altered renal perfusion with the activation of the renin-angiotensin system. Since a large number of these patients benefits from treatment--be it medical, surgical or angioplastic--a non-invasive low-cost method allowing accurate screening was looked for. Color-Doppler was employed by many authors to evaluate renovascular hypertension, for both the early diagnosis of the condition and the evaluation of treatment results in renal artery stenoses.

[Renal artery stenosis. Doppler color study before and after angioplasty].

Doppler flowmetry can be successfully employed to assess arterial patency after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA). The aim of this study was to assess color Doppler sensitivity in detecting renal artery stenosis prior to percutaneous angioplasty (PTRA) and vessel patency after it. Eleven patients (7 males and 4 females) affected with renal artery stenosis, unilateral in 9 cases and bilaterally in 2, underwent color-Doppler evaluation 1 day before and 7 days after PTRA.

Prognostic value of captopril renal scintigraphy in renovascular hypertension.

This study evaluates the prognostic value of captopril renal scintigraphy in hypertensive patients undergoing renal artery revascularization. Preoperative studies of 51 patients were correlated with blood pressure results at 6- and 12-mo follow-up. Captopril-renal scintigraphy was carried out 1 hr after oral administration of 50 mg of captopril, using either 220 MBq of 99mTc-DTPA or 74 MBq of 99mTc-MAG3, followed by a baseline study in case of abnormal results.

Evaluation by captopril renal scintigraphy and echo-Doppler flowmetry of hypertensive patients at high risk for renal artery stenosis.

Sixty-three hypertensive patients with probability of obstructive renal artery disease underwent both Captopril renal scintigraphy (CRS) and echo-Doppler flowmetry (EDF) before undergoing renal angiography. Angiography revealed renal artery stenosis (RAS) in 42 patients (unilaterally in 26 and bilaterally in 16). The sensitivity and specificity in the identification of RAS > or = 50% were 90% and 94%, respectively for Captopril renography, and 85% and 78% for echo-Doppler flowmetry.

[Percutaneous nephrostomy in neoplasm patients: when?].

The management of cancer patients with a lesion in its end stage is a clinical problem a satisfactory solution to which has not been found yet, because of the ethical and legal problems involved. The authors analyzed the survival rates of 218 patients with advanced neoplastic disease and obstructive renal failure who had undergone external/internal urinary diversion. One month after the procedure 20% of the patients were dead.

[Duplex and Doppler color echocardiography for the study of renovascular hypertension. Comparison with arteriography].

Doppler US was employed to examine 46 patients with suspected renovascular hypertension (RVI) to detect stenosis/occlusion of the renal artery. In 25 cases duplex-Doppler technique was used, in 19 color-Doppler US, and 2 patients were examined with both methods. Doppler US was always performed before angiography which was considered as the reference gold standard.

Use of technetium-99m-MAG3 for renal scintigraphy after angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition.

Technetium-99m-mercaptoacetyltriglycine (99mTc-MAG3) was tested in 82 hypertensive patients submitted to renal scintigraphy 1 hr after oral premedication with 50 mg of Captopril. Baseline studies were obtained only for those patients showing abnormal findings in the provocative study. All patients underwent renal arteriography.

Evaluation of hypertensive patients by means of captopril enhanced renal scintigraphy with technetium-99m DTPA.

One-hundred five hypertensive patients underwent conventional renal scintigraphy followed 2 or 3 days later by Captopril-enhanced renal scintigraphy, performed 1 hr after premedication with 50 mg of Captopril per os. All patients were then submitted to renal arteriography, performed within 15-30 days. Fifty-five patients had no renal artery stenosis, 29 had unilateral disease, and 21 bilateral.

[Angiographic study of the complications of vascular access in patients under hemodialysis].

Periodic hemodialysis requires the vascular access to be capable of functioning perfectly for a long time; therefore early diagnosis of the most common complications is very important. Fifty-four patients in dialysis treatment for end-stage renal failure (ESRF) were examined over a six-year period for vascular access (VA) complications. Eighty vascular accesses were studied: 68 arteriovenous fistulas and 12 arteriovenous grafts.