This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Thompson, R. W. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Thompson, R. W. Related Collections Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

(Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2004;24:240.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Brief Reviews

ATVB In Focus

Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Pathophysiological Mechanisms and Clinical Implications

Robert W. Thompson

From the Section of Vascular Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.

Correspondence to Robert W. Thompson, Washington University School of Medicine, Section of Vascular Surgery, 9901 Wohl Hospital, 4960 Children’s Place, St. Louis, MO 63110. Email thompsonr@msnotes.wustl.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

With this issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, we begin a new series of brief reviews on the topic of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs). Although aneurysm disease has often been relegated to somewhat of a secondary place in cardiovascular and atherosclerosis research, aortic aneurysms and dissections are quite common in the general population, and the risks of death from aneurysm rupture remain a significant clinical problem. Over the past decade, basic and translational research on this topic has led to an extraordinary increase in new insights, and aneurysm disease has received increasing attention as an important area of investigative focus. With the advent of recent initiatives to extend the breadth of cardiovascular research to noncardiac areas of vascular disease, better understanding of aortic aneurysms and their treatment have become of special interest to the vascular community. It is therefore our hope that the topic of aortic aneurysms and dissections will be of significant interest to the readership of ATVB, not only in its own right but also due to the many common features that exist between aneurysms and other problems in atherosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology.

See page 241

The overall theme of this series will be to review the pathophysiological mechanisms that contribute to aneurysmal degeneration, and to critically consider how these mechanisms are related to other complicated forms of atherosclerosis. In addition, these reviews will highlight the potential therapeutic implications that new research findings might have for the management of aneurysm disease. For example, from . . . [Full Text of this Article]