Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This commentary refers to ‘Longitudinal surgical trends and methodological constraints in INAA research’, by Q. Mei et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf910 and the discussion piece ‘Infected native aortic aneurysms: epidemiology, management, and outcomes based on a nationwide population-based study’, by C.-C. Lee et al., https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf449. We appreciate the thoughtful comments by Mei et al. on our nationwide study of infected native aortic aneurysms (INAAs) in Taiwan.1 Anatomical heterogeneity, pathogen diversity, treatment selection, and follow-up are indeed key factors in interpreting outcomes for this rare but serious condition. First, prior literature indicates that ∼70% of INAAs involve the abdominal aorta and 30% the thoracic aorta.2 In developing a prediction model, excluding aortic dissection removed most thoracic aneurysms and improved specificity in Taiwan’s administrative data. The absence of a dedicated International Classification of Diseases code remains a global challenge, highlighting the value of validated prediction models such as ours, developed using a large, nationally representative dataset.
Chang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.