Table II.
Prioritized research on the impact of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) on abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease
| Research question | Approaches |
|---|---|
| Does COVID-19 alter systemic levels of angiotensin II and Ang1-7? | Participants: COVID-19 convalescent patients with or without AAAs 3, 6, and 12 months after hospital discharge as well as matched non-COVID-19 controls with or without AAAs Approaches: Analyze plasma/serum; Ang II and Ang 1-7 via ELISA assays |
| Are systemic levels of selected proaneurysmal mediators modified following COVID-19? | Participants: COVID-19 convalescent patients with or without AAAs 3, 6, and 12 months after hospital discharge as well as matched non-COVID-19 controls with or without AAAs Approaches: Proteomic or specific protein arrays to determine plasma/serum key proaneurysmal mediators such as IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17, TNF-α, CCL2, CCL5, MMP2, MMP9 and VEGF-A |
| Is AAA enlargement rate, risk for rupture, or surgical repair at any given baseline aortic diameter increased following COVID-19? | Participants: All AAA patients (regardless of COVID-19), or convalescent COVID-19 AAA patients and non-COVID-19 AAA patients. Approaches: Compare AAA enlargement rate, rupture, or the need for surgical repair (primary end points) using retrospective case-control study, perform multi-variable analysis to determine whether COVID-19 is an independent factor for the development of a primary end point. |
| Is aneurysm prevalence increased following COVID-19? | Data source: Hospital electronic health record or Medicare database Compare AAA prevalence before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic period |
| Does vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 modulate enlargement rate, risk for rupture or surgical repair of clinical AAAs? | Data source: Hospital electronic health record or Medicare database Approaches: Compare enlargement rate, rupture, or the need for AAA surgical repair in COVID-19 convalescent patients with non-COVID-19 convalescent patients or those who have received a vaccination |
Ang, angiotensin; SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2; TNF, tumor necrosis factor; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.