Research output related to artificial intelligence (AI) in vascular diseases has been poorly investigated. The aim of this study was to evaluate scientific publications on AI in non-cardiac vascular diseases. A systematic literature search was conducted using the PubMed database and a combination of keywords and focused on three main vascular diseases (carotid, aortic and peripheral artery diseases). Original articles written in English and published between January 1995 and December 2020 were included. Data extracted included the date of publication, the journal, the identity, number, affiliated country of authors, the topics of research, and the fields of AI. Among 171 articles included, the three most productive countries were USA, China, and United Kingdom. The fields developed within AI included: machine learning (n = 90; 45.0%), vision (n = 45; 22.5%), robotics (n = 42; 21.0%), expert system (n = 15; 7.5%), and natural language processing (n = 8; 4.0%). The applications were mainly new tools for: the treatment (n = 52; 29.1%), prognosis (n = 45; 25.1%), the diagnosis and classification of vascular diseases (n = 38; 21.2%), and imaging segmentation (n = 38; 21.2%). By identifying the main techniques and applications, this study also pointed to the current limitations and may help to better foresee future applications for clinical practice.

The impact of sex on the outcomes of patients with cardiovascular disease is still incompletely understood. The aim of this nationwide multicenter observational study was to investigate the impact of sex on post-operative outcomes in patients undergoing thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR) for intact thoracic aortic aneurysm (iTAA). The French National Health Insurance Information System was searched to identify these patients over a ten-year retrospective period. Post-operative outcomes, 30-day and overall mortality were recorded. Among the 7383 patients included (5521 men and 1862 women), females were significantly older than males (66.8 vs. 64.8 years, p < 0.001). They were less frequently diagnosed with cardiovascular comorbidities. Post-operatively, women had less frequently respiratory (10.9 vs. 13.7%, p = 0.002) as well as cardiac complications (34.3 vs. 37.3%, p = 0.023), but they had more frequently arterial complications (52.8 vs. 49.8%, p = 0.024). There was no significant difference on overall mortality for a mean follow-up of 2.2 years (26.9 vs. 27.6%, p = 0.58). In the multivariable regression model, female sex was not associated with 30-day or overall mortality. Although women had a favorable comorbidity profile, the short-term and long-term survival was similar. The significantly higher rate of arterial complications suggests that women may be at higher risk of access-vessel-related complications.