Description

The Triple-A Barcelona Study (TABS) is a prospective longitudinal registry started in 2019. All individuals identified incidentally with AAA, defined as those with dilation in infrarenal abdominal aorta with a diameter greater than 30 mm13 that visit the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Units of Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and Hospital del Mar (Barcelona, Spain) from 2020 to the present are invited to participate to the project. Patients who did not consent to participation were not considered for enrollment. Upon enrollment, participant's medical history was carefully reviewed, and all previous measures of aortic diameter and available clinical information was included retrospectively in the database. All participants have at least one measurement of the abdominal aortic diameter, either by computed tomography scan (CT-scan) or by ultrasound along with anthropometric and clinical information, and blood samples for most follow-up visits. The first measurement was considered as the baseline. All measurements following the baseline measurement were used until aortic repair or rupture, or death. Individuals that were excluded from surgery after they exceeded the surgical threshold (due to concomitant pathology, AAA anatomy or patient rejection to surgery) were also considered for inclusion, and their retrospective data, if existing, was recorded. All patients were asked for an informed consent to participate in this study, and to be included in a clinical database. Type B dissections that progress to AAA, saccular aneurysms, mycotic aneurysms, visceral aneurysms or thoracic aneurysms were excluded. Aortic diameter was assessed using either ultrasound or CT-scan images.