Impact of dynamic computed tomographic angiography on endograft sizing for endovascular aneurysm repair.
OBJECTIVE
To quantify dynamic changes in aortoiliac dimensions using dynamic electrocardiographically (ECG)-gated computed tomographic angiography (CTA) and to investigate any potential impact on preoperative endograft sizing in relation to observer variability.


METHODS
Dynamic ECG-gated CTA was performed in 18 patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms. Postprocessing resulted in 11 datasets per patient: 1 static CTA and 10 dynamic CTA series. Vessel diameter, length, and angulation were measured for all phases of the cardiac cycle. The differences between diastolic and systolic aneurysm dimensions were analyzed for significance using paired t tests. To assess intraobserver variability, 20 randomly selected datasets were analyzed twice. Intraobserver repeatability coefficients (RC) were calculated using Bland-Altman analysis.


RESULTS
Mean aortic diameter at the proximal neck was 21.4+/-3.0 mm at diastole and 23.2+/-2.9 mm at systole, a mean increase of 1.8+/-0.4 mm (8.5%, p<0.01). The RC for the aortic diameter at the level of the proximal aneurysm neck was 1.9 mm (8.9%). At the distal sealing zones, the mean increase in diameter was 1.7+/-0.3 mm (14.1%, p<0.01) for the right and 1.8+/-0.5 mm (14.2%, p<0.01) for the left common iliac artery (CIA). At both distal sealing zones, the mean increase in CIA diameter exceeded the RC (10.0% for the right CIA and 12.6% for the left CIA).


CONCLUSIONS
The observed changes in aneurysm dimension during the cardiac cycle are small and in the range of intraobserver variability, so dynamic changes in proximal aneurysm neck diameter and aneurysm length likely have little impact on preoperative endograft selection. However, changes in diameter at the distal sealing zones may be relevant to sizing, so distal oversizing of up to 20% should be considered to prevent distal type I endoleak.
Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular and Transplant Surgery, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. J.Pol@chir.umcn.nl
Jillis A
JA
Pol
Maarten
M
Truijers
J Adam
JA
van der Vliet
Mark F
MF
Fillinger
Steven P
SP
Marra
W Klaas Jan
WK
Renema
Luuk J
LJ
Oostveen
Leo J Schultze
LJ
Kool
Jan D
JD
Blankensteijn
D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*; D001027:Aortography / Q000379:methods*; D001807:Blood Vessel Prosthesis; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D018579:Patient Selection; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D011857:Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015607:Stents; D013997:Time Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed