Background: Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) has substantially decreased the mortality and major complications from aortic surgery. However, neurological complications such as spinal cord ischemia may still occur after TEVAR. S-100β is a biomarker of central nervous system injury, and oxidant injury plays an important role in neurological injury. In this pilot study, we examined the trends of S-100β and antioxidant capacity in the CSF during and after TEVAR.
Methods: We recruited 10 patients who underwent elective TEVAR. CSF samples were collected through a lumbar catheter at the following time points: before the start of surgery (T0) and immediately (T1) and 24 (T2) and 48 hours (T3) after the deployment of the aortic stent. S-100β and CSF antioxidant capacity were analyzed with the use of commercially available kits.
Results: We observed that the level of S-100β in all of the subjects at 24 hours after the deployment of the aortic stent (T2) increased. However, the levels of S-100β at T1 and T3 were comparable to the baseline value. The antioxidant capacity remained unchanged. No patient had a clinical neurologic complication.
Conclusions: Our observations may indicate biochemical/subclinical central nervous system injury attributable to the deployment of the aortic stent.