Effect of intraluminal thrombus on local abdominal aortic aneurysm wall strength

We have shown that the intraluminal thrombus (ILT) commonly found within abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) significantly attenuates diffusion of oxygen to the aortic wall as its thickness increases. We hypothesize that, as a result, the strength of the AAA wall is inversely related to ILT thickness. We tested the strength of 6 pairs of freshly excised AAA wall specimens from 6 different patients. Uniaxial tensile testing revealed that AAA wall adjacent to thin ILT or no ILT is significantly stronger than that adjacent to thick ILT (p=0.03).