endovascular AAA repair caused significant leukocyte and platelet activation. Based on the timing of activation this could be caused by radiographic contrast media.

Preoperative CT in combination with 3D ultrasound might be helpful for guiding minimal invasive abdominal interventions.

Our findings indicate that on-table DynaCT are of sufficient quality to give relevant information of arterial measurements, needed in endovascular repair of infrarenal aortic aneurysms.

No abstract

Our preliminary experience with Dyna-CT is promising, but further research is necessary to define the place of this imaging modality in EVAR.

The purpose of this article is to report whether combined open and endovascular treatment could be applied in patients with complex aortic disease. A retrospective study including four patients with complex aortic disease was undertaken. In all patients, extra-anatomic bypass to the visceral arteries was made through a laparotomy while the aortic lesion was repaired by stent grafting. One patient died on the first postoperative day and another died 3 months after treatment from a myocardial infarction. The other two patients were alive 13 and 34 months after treatment, respectively. However, a patient treated for a ruptured thoracoabdominal type 2 aneurysm on the basis of a dissection suffers from postoperative paraplegia. The combination of open surgery with extra-anatomic bypass to visceral arteries and stent grafting could be an option for the treatment of patients with complex aortic disease, especially in high-risk cases in which more extensive open surgery is contraindicated.

Introduction: Use of CT in the investigation of pulmonary embolism in radiosensitive patients such as pregnant and young female patients entails the need for protocol optimization. The aim of this study was to analyze the dose reduction and image quality achieved by using 80 kV instead of 100 kV in CT pulmonary angiography protocols.Methods: 80 examinations of non-obese patients were analyzed (40 consecutive patients for each protocol, equally distributed on two CT scanners). Objective image quality was assessed by measurements of HU values (average and standard deviation) in five ROIs in pulmonary arteries and calculations of signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR). Subjective image quality was independently evaluated by two radiologists in terms of perceived noise, sharp reproduction of pulmonary arteries and overall diagnostic quality. Radiation dose parameters (CTDIvol, DLP, SSDE and effective dose) and effective risk were compared. Differences in radiation dose and objective measures of image quality for the two protocols were assessed using the independent t test; comparison of subjective grading of image quality was performed with the Mann-Whitney U test.Results: Use of 80 kV significantly increased both arterial contrast enhancement and image noise. Differences in SNR and CNR between protocols were not statistically significant. Achieved dose reduction by using 80kV was significant on both scanners (SSDE reduction 35% and 46%, p<0.001; effective dose reduction 40% and 53%, p<0.001). Conclusion:Use of 80 kV protocols for CT examinations of pulmonary arteries in non-obese patients with bodyweight below 80kg results in significant reduction of radiation doses without compromising image quality.

Iohexol induces neutrophil degranulation, which is greatly enhanced when combined with vascular stent-graft material. Thus, iohexol-induced neutrophil activation may contribute to an inflammatory response following stent-graft implantation. We speculate that neutrophil activation during other procedures combining catheters and iohexol (e.g., angiography) may induce inflammation, which might have detrimental effects.