Non-Invasive Pulse Wave Analysis in a Thrombus-Free Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm after Implantation of a Nitinol Aortic Endograft

Endovascular aneurysm repair has been associated with changes in arterial stiffness, as estimated by pulse wave velocity (PWV). This marker is influenced by the medical status of the patient, the elastic characteristics of the aneurysm wall, and the presence of intraluminal thrombus. Therefore, in order to delineate the influence of the endograft implantation in the early post-operative period, we conducted non-invasively pulse wave analysis in a male patient with an abdominal aortic aneurysm containing no intraluminal thrombus, unremarkable past medical history, and absence of peripheral arterial disease. The estimated parameters were the systolic and diastolic pressure calculated at the aortic level (central pressures), PWV, augmentation pressure (AP) and augmentation index (AI), pressure wave reflection magnitude (RM), and peripheral resistance. Central systolic and diastolic pressure decreased post-operatively. PWV showed subtle changes from 11.6 to 10.6 and 10.9 m/s at 1-week and 1-month, respectively. Accordingly, the AI decreased from 28 to 14% and continued to drop to 25%. The AP decreased gradually from 15 to 6 and 4 mmHg. The wave RM dropped from 68 to 52% at 1-month. Finally, the peripheral resistance dropped from 1.41 to 0.99 and 0.85 dyn × s × cm(−5). Our example shows that the implantation of an aortic endograft can modify the pressure wave reflection over the aortic bifurcation without causing significant alterations in PWV.