Retrospective observational study evaluating zinc plasma level in patients undergoing thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair and its correlation with outcome

Figures

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  Figure 1. (A) Zinc levels of all patients (n = 33) in correlation with the age before endovascular/surgical intervention are shown. The dashed lines show commonly used upper (70 µg/dl)/lower (150 µg/dl) standard values for the zinc level. (B) The zinc levels of patients that survived endovascular/surgical intervention and were released from the hospital (n = 27) were compared to patients that died during the hospital stay (n = 6). Zinc level was measured before endovascular/surgical intervention. Shown is the mean and SD. Significance was determined using Student's t-test assuming significance if *p < 0.05.

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  Figure 2. (A) The SOFA-Score (Sepsis-related organ failure assessment) of 32 patients after two days is shown. For one patient no SOFA-score could be obtained after two days. Accompanying the regression line (p = 0.0090). (B) The SAPS (Simplified Acute Physiology Score) for 32 patients after two days is demonstrated. For one patient no SAPS could be obtained on day two. Also shown is the regression line (p = 0.0010). (C) Demonstrated is the SOFA score after two days according to the point value < 10 points (n = 19) or ≥ 10 points (n = 13) (0.0099). (D) Shown is the SAPS score divided into patients with a score < 40 points (n = 26) or patients with ≥ 40 points (n = 6) (p = 0.0372).

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  Figure 3. (A) Zinc levels before intervention of patients who had or did not have peripheral arterial disease (“PAD”; n = 4; p = 0.0494). (B) Mean zinc level of our patient cohort before the respective intervention depending on whether we assigned the patients to the group with proven (n = 5) or high suspicion (n = 1) of a genetic predisposition (“inherited”; n = 6; p = 0.9601) or to the group with high atherosclerosis burden ("high-risk"; n = 8; p = 0.0003). (C) Representation of the criteria that we used to categorize patients to the high-risk group (“high-risk”) or not (“normal”). Shown is the mean and SD. Significance was determined using Student's t-test assuming significance if *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001.