Serum levels of elastin-derived peptides in patients with ruptured and asymptomatic abdominal aortic aneurysms

Objective: to determine whether serum elastin-derived peptides (S-EDP), are lower in patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms (rAAA) than asy mptomatic (aAAA). Materials and methods: serum samples were collected preoperatively from 45 consecutive patients with aAAA and 15 haemodynamically stable patients with rAAA. S-EDP (ng/ml) was measured by a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorb ent assay (ELISA). Results: S-EDP (mean +/-S.D.) was significantly lower in patients with rAAA (31.6 ng/ml +/-6.8) than in patients with aAAA (39.4 ng/ml +/-8.0; p = 0.0 01). Conclusion: patients with rAAA had significantly lower levels of S-EDP than patients with aAAA. The possibility that S-EDP can be used to identify pat ients at increased risk of rupture requires further investigation.