title: The incidence and morphology of Monckeberg's medial calcification in banked vascular segments from a monocentric donor population.
abstract: Little is known about the real incidence and the clinical relevance of the enigmatic Monckeberg's medial calcification in the patency of the femoral artery allograft. Here we present a retrospective study on 143 multiorgan donors (mean age 38 years, range 14-59 years), to describe the incidence and the morphological features of vascular calcifications in banked femoral arteries suitable for clinical use. In the present series, focal vascular calcifications were present in 36 (25 %) cases, 23 cases localized in the intima, 7 in the media, and 6 were mixed. No correlation was found between the incidence of calcifications and the classical cardiovascular clinical risk factors (n = 9); only hypertension correlated with the medial localization, but not with the incidence, of the calcification (P = 0.017). While the macroscopic exclusion criteria of vascular grafts include atheromatous and not-atheromatous lesions, we ignore the actual impact of Monckeberg's medial calcification on vessel transplantation and allograft life. In our opinion this is a very important topic, since when the histological criteria for Monckeberg's calcification diagnosis are used, 25 % of our young donors population was affected. Whether Monckeberg's medial calcification is a stable arterial condition, apparently underestimated in the general population, or a dynamic process evolving with age and atherosclerosis, or a banking-related vascular alteration, still remain an open issue deserving further studies with subjects of different ages.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Surgical Pathology, Department of Specialty, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine (DIMES), S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna University, via Massarenti 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vasuri
authors.affiliation: Unit of Surgical Pathology, Department of Specialty, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine (DIMES), S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna University, via Massarenti 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fittipaldi
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pacilli
authors.affiliation: Service of Immunohematology and Transfusional Medicine, S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna University, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buzzi
authors.affiliation: Unit of Surgical Pathology, Department of Specialty, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine (DIMES), S.Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Bologna University, via Massarenti 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy. gianandr.pasquinelli@unibo.it.
authors.forename: Gianandrea
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pasquinelli
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005263:Femoral Artery / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014015:Tissue Banks; D014019:Tissue Donors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Artery donors; Histology; Monckeberg medial calcification; Vascular allograft