BRAVISSIMO: 12-month results from a large scale prospective trial.

The BRAVISSIMO study is a prospective, non-randomized, multi-center, multi-national, monitored trial, conducted at 12 hospitals in Belgium and 11 hospitals in Italy. This manuscript reports the findings up to the 12-month follow-up time point for both the TASC A&B cohort and the TASC C&D cohort. The primary endpoint of the study is primary patency at 12 months, defined as a target lesion without a hemodynamically significant stenosis on Duplex ultrasound (>50%, systolic velocity ratio no greater than 2.

Endovascular repair of peripheral and visceral aneurysms with the Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator: one-year results from the Italian Multicenter Registry.

Purpose: To assess the efficacy of the Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator (CMFM), a bare cobalt alloy self-expanding stent, in the treatment of peripheral and visceral artery aneurysms.

Methods: In this multicenter (n=22), prospective, voluntary registry, 54 patients (47 men; mean age 68 years, range 19-87) who underwent CMFM deployment for peripheral (n=35) or visceral aneurysms (n=19) in a variety of target arteries were enrolled between June 2009 and June 2010. Among the 54 lesions, 44 had a total of 53 side branches.

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty versus turbostatic carbon-coated stents in infrapopliteal arteries: InPeria II trial.

Purpose: To determine the clinical outcome and the success of stent application for high-grade lesions of the infrapopliteal arteries compared with treatment with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) in critical limb ischemia (CLI).

Materials And Methods: In this ethics board-approved randomized prospective study, PTA or stent application was performed on 131 lesions in 88 patients with CLI. The primary end points were clinical improvement after endovascular treatment and limb salvage rate.

Endovascular treatment of visceral artery aneurysms with Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator: preliminary results at six-month follow-up.

Aim: The aim of this study was to analyze our initial experience with Cardiatis multilayer flow modulator and value its efficacy in the treatment of visceral artery aneurysms (VAA) at one and six months follow up in terms of aneurysms exclusion, patency of collateral vessels (when present) and shrinkage of the lesion.

Methods: Between June 2009 and June 2010, 19 patients (13 men and 6 women, mean age 60 years, range 19-86) with true visceral aneurysms underwent endovascular procedure with Cardiatis multilayer peripheral flow modulator in 12 clinical centers (10 vascular interventional radiology and 2 vascular surgery). The site of aneurysmal lesions was splenic artery in five cases (26.

Postpartum valve thrombosis: a happy ending thriller.

A 29-year-old woman with two mechanical valve prostheses was referred to our institution for sudden and self-resolved diplopia 2 weeks after childbirth. From the beginning of pregnancy, nadroparin was started instead of warfarin. The echocardiogram performed at hospital admission revealed a severe aortic prosthesis regurgitation due to incomplete leaflet apposition with a prosthetic aortic transvalvular gradient increase.

Evidence-based medicine in renal artery stenting.

Atherosclerotic renovascular disease is an increasingly recognized cause of severe hypertension and declining kidney function. Patients with atherosclerotic renovascular disease have been demonstrated to have an increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Over the course of the last two decades renal artery revascularization for treatment of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS) has gained great increase via percutaneous techniques.

Asymptomatic deep venous thrombosis after deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease.

Background/aims: Patients with advanced Parkinson disease (PD) are at increased risk for asymptomatic leg deep venous thrombosis (DVT) because of severe motor fluctuations. Protracted immobility in the absence of antiparkinsonian therapy during stereotactic surgery may further increase the risk for venous thrombosis. Our aim was to determine the incidence of asymptomatic DVT of leg veins in PD patients undergoing subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation (STN-DBS).

Stenting of transplant renal artery stenosis: outcome in a single center study.

Aim: Transplant renal artery stenosis (TRAS) is the most frequent vascular complication following transplantation and is a potential curable cause of resistant hypertension, allograft dysfunction, and graft loss. Percutaneous angioplasty (PTA) is the treatment of choice, but the incidence of restenosis may be as high as 35%. Alternative treatment option combines the angioplastic procedure with the placement of a stent.

Sirolimus-eluting versus bare-metal low-profile stent for renal artery treatment (GREAT Trial): angiographic follow-up after 6 months and clinical outcome up to 2 years.

Purpose: To evaluate the patency of sirolimus-eluting stents (SES) compared to bare-metal stents (BMS) in the treatment of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS).

Methods: Between November 2001 to June 2003, 105 consecutive symptomatic patients (53 men; mean age 65.7 years) with RAS were treated with either a bare-metal (n=52) or a drug-eluting (n=53) low-profile Palmaz-Genesis peripheral stent at 11 centers in a prospective nonrandomized trial.

Should we consider gestational diabetes a vascular risk factor?

Few and contrasting data have reported vascular endothelial dysfunction and increased serum levels of endothelial dysfunction and inflammatory markers in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus (pGDM). We aimed at evaluating 6.5 years after delivery: intimal medial thickness (IMT), and C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) levels in 82 non-pregnant pGDM and 113 control women without pGDM.

Low-profile stent system for treatment of atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis: the GREAT trial.

Purpose: The Palmaz Genesis Peripheral Stainless Steel Balloon Expandable Stent in Renal Artery Treatment (GREAT) Trial was designed to assess the safety and performance of a low-profile stent for the treatment of obstructive renal artery disease by looking at 6-month renal artery patency uniformly analyzed by a Core Lab.

Materials And Methods: Fifty-two consecutive patients (mean age, 63.7 years) were successfully treated with the Palmaz Genesis Peripheral Stent (Cordis, Miami, FL) on the Slalom 0.

Diffuse vascular damage in a transplanted kidney: an indication for nuclear magnetic resonance?

Vascular lesions are an increasing challenge after renal transplantation due to the wider indications for recipients and acceptance criteria for donors. Diagnostic approach and prognostic interpretation are still matter of controversy. The case reported herein may summarize some of the issues in this regard.

Reliability of captopril renography in patients under chronic therapy with angiotensin II (AT1) receptor antagonists.

Unlabelled: Captopril renography is a reliable, widely used test for the functional diagnosis of renovascular hypertension. Well-recognized drawbacks of the procedure include reduced accuracy in patients with bilateral disease or renal impairment as well as the possible interference from concurrent antihypertensive medication (diuretics, beta-blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, calcium channel blockers). Currently, no data exist regarding the reliability of captopril renography in patients with renovascular hypertension evaluated while they are under chronic treatment with angiotensin II (AT1) receptor antagonists (Sartans).

Worsening of hypertension in a pregnant woman with renal arteriovenous malformation: a successful superselective embolization after delivery.

A 30-year-old female presented with uncontrolled hypertension due to arteriovenous malformation in the upper third of the right kidney, which worsened during pregnancy. The arteriovenous malformation was detected by color-coded Doppler sonography, confirmed by angiography, and the fistula was sealed by superselective arterial embolization with metallic coils. Superselective embolization is the most effective and safe treatment for this rare and complex pathology.

Duplex scan sonography of renal artery stenosis.

Renal artery stenosis is the most common cause of potentially remediable secondary hypertension. The most common causes include atherosclerosis and fibromuscular dysplasia. Particularly the atherosclerotic form is a progressive disease that may lead to gradual and silent loss of renal functional tissue.

[Evaluation of patient doses in interventional radiology].

Purpose: To verify the suitability of indicative quantities to evaluate the risk related to patient exposure, in abdominal and vascular interventional radiology, by the study of correlations between dosimetric quantities and other indicators.

Material And Methods: We performed in vivo measurements of entrance skin dose (ESD) and dose area product (DAP) during 48 procedures to evaluate the correlation among dosimetric quantities, and an estimation of spatial distribution of exposure and effective dose (E). To measure DAP we used a transmission ionization chamber and to evaluate ESD and its spatial distribution we used radiographic film packed in a single envelope and placed near the patient's skin.

[Scabies in a dalysis unit. Mystery and prejudice].

Background: Pruritus is one of the most common symptoms of uremia. The etiology of uremic pruritus is steel incompletely known. Scabies may be a cause of itching in these patients.