The secondary end point was clinical effectiveness, defined as recurrent vertebrobasilar ischemic symptoms within 12 months after stent placement and restenosis greater than or equal to 50% of the treated VA segment within 12 months after stent placement.

Results: The degree of stenosis ranged from 46% to 83% (mean, 67.3% +/- 11.9). The technical success rate GNS-1480 cell line was 100%. Procedure-related complication rate, mortality rate,

and permanent neurologic morbidity rate at 30-day follow-up were 0%. At 12-month follow-up, no patient reported recurrent vertebrobasilar ischemic symptoms or had VA restenosis.

Conclusion: This pilot study suggests that use of paclitaxel-eluting stents in angioplasty and to treat symptomatic atherosclerotic ostial VA stenosis are feasible and promising in terms of potential safety and effectiveness in prevention of recurrent ischemia and restenosis. These results could be helpful in the formulation of a larger prospective randomized controlled trial. (C) RSNA, 2009″
“Background: Little is known about the clinical and anatomic progression of asymptomatic rotator cuff tears. The purpose of our study was selleck to assess if deterioration

in rotator cuff tear anatomy would be correlated to the development of symptoms.

Methods: Fifty patients with initially asymptomatic full-thickness rotator cuff tears were followed clinically, sonographically, and by magnetic resonance imaging over three years. Changes of tear size, muscle atrophy, fatty degeneration, and condition of the long head of the biceps tendon were compared between tears that developed symptoms and those that did not.

Results: Eighteen of fifty tears developed symptoms during follow-up. There was a significantly larger increase (p = 0.02) in the mean tear size in the newly

symptomatic group (10.6 mm) when compared with the still-asymptomatic group (3.3 mm). The rate of progressing to advanced muscle atrophy was higher (p = 0.08) in the newly symptomatic group (35% [six of seventeen subjects]) when ATG-016 compared with the still-asymptomatic group (12% [three of twenty-five subjects]). The rate of fatty degeneration was significantly higher (p = 0.02) in the newly symptomatic group (35% [six of seventeen subjects]) when compared with the still-asymptomatic group (4% [one of twenty-five subjects]). The rate of pathology of the long head of the biceps tendon was significantly higher (p = 0.02) in the newly symptomatic group (33% [six of eighteen subjects]) when compared with the still-asymptomatic group (6% [two of thirty-two subjects]).

Conclusions: During a relatively short-term follow-up, a substantial percentage of asymptomatic rotator cuff tears became symptomatic and underwent anatomic deterioration. Increase in tear size and decrease of muscle quality were correlated to the development of symptoms.