Abstract
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a degenerative disease of the aorta common in adults older than 65 years of age. AAA is usually imaged using ultrasound or computed tomography. Molecular imaging technologies employing nanoparticles (NPs) have been proposed as novel ways to quantify pathological processes, such as inflammation, within AAAs as a means to identify the risk of rapid progression or rupture. This article reviews the current evidence supporting the role of NP-based imaging in the management of AAA. Currently, ultrasmall superparamagnetic NPs enhanced magnetic resonance imaging appears to hold the greatest potential for imaging macrophage-mediated inflammation in human AAA.
Highlights
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a degenerative disease of the aorta common in older adults [1,2,3,4]
Several molecular imaging approaches have been investigated for AAA, but their ability to clearly differentiate between AAAs at risk of rupture and predict AAAs that will benefit from a surgical intervention is still unclear [3, 14, 15, 59]
Turner and colleagues evaluated the use of the ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIOs) as a marker for the detection of macrophages in the angiotensin II-infused apolipoprotein E deficient (ApoE−/−) AAA mouse model [45]
Summary
Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a degenerative disease of the aorta common in older adults [1,2,3,4]. Patients with small AAAs usually undergo regular imaging to monitor AAA diameter until it exceeds 55 mm [4]. At this point, patients are usually recommended to have open surgical or endovascular stent graft repair according to current guidelines [2, 8, 9]. The UK small aneurysm trial reported that the rupture rate for asymptomatic AAAs measuring
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