title: Assessing the potential risk of rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysms.
abstract: Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) involve complex interplays between inflammatory and biomechanical factors that can be elucidated with anatomical and functional imaging. Although AAA size has been well-established in the literature to correlate with risk of rupture (and subsequent need for vascular intervention), there are other less-well-known characteristics about AAAs that also contribute to higher risk of rupture. This review focuses on biomechanical, radiological, and epidemiological characteristics of AAAs that are associated with higher rupture risk. For clinicians, knowing and considering a wide variety of risk factors in addition to AAA size is important to initiate early and proper intervention for AAA repair. Although there is no official quantitative risk score of AAA rupture risk that takes other non-size-related variables into account, if clinicians are aware of these other parameters, it is hoped that intervention can be appropriately performed for higher-risk AAAs that have not met the size-threshold for elective repair.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center - Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Electronic address: khans5@upmc.edu.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center - Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Solid Mechanics, Mechatronics and Biomechanics, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Polzer
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jha
mesh_terms: D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001019:Aortic Rupture / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013927:Thrombosis / Q000150:complications; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*