Popliteal venous aneurysms (PVA) are rare and in most cases the first sign of their presence is a pulmonary embolus or other thromboembolic events. We report four cases of PVA, in two of these the first sign of their presence was an acute pulmonary embolism; in two remaining cases the diagnosis was fortuitous. Accurate evaluation of venous system of lower limb by duplex scan is important in all cases of pulmonary embolism, the anticoagulation may be ineffective in preventing pulmonary embolism and the surgical repair is the mainstay of therapy of this pathology because it is safe and effective.

Monopartite projections of bipartite networks are useful tools for modeling indirect interactions in complex systems. The standard approach to identify significant links is statistical validation using a suitable null network model, such as the popular configuration model (CM) that constrains node degrees and randomizes everything else. However different CM formulations exist, depending on how the constraints are imposed and for which sets of nodes. Here we systematically investigate the application of these formulations in validating the same network, showing that they lead to different results even when the same significance threshold is used. Instead a much better agreement is obtained for the same density of validated links. We thus propose a meta-validation approach that allows to identify model-specific significance thresholds for which the signal is strongest, and at the same time to obtain results independent of the way in which the null hypothesis is formulated. We illustrate this procedure using data on scientific production of world countries.

Our results suggest that the immediate surgery with intraoperative thrombolysis improved the outcome of patients with acute leg ischemia due to PAA thrombosis in terms of limb salvage.

We report successful management of aortic graft infection without graft explanation or extra-anatomic bypass. A 61 year-old male who had undergone surgical repair of a type IV thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysm presented with left flank pain and raised inflammatory markers following graft implantation. CT scanning revealed a left psoas fluid collection. Graft infection was diagnosed. A radio-guided drainage and conservative management, with irrigation drain placement was undertaken with preservation of the aortic graft. There was no evidence of recurrent infection after follow-up at 34 months. Aortic endograft infection may be managed by surgical or radio-guided drainage, antibiotic irrigation of the graft and systemic antibiotic therapy without graft removal. Figure 3. CT follow-up showed no evidence of recurrent infection.

No abstract