The Effects of Anesthesia on Patients Undergoing Surgery for Repair of a Thoracoabdominal Aneurysm.
Status:
Terminated
Trial end date:
2014-02-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Alzheimer's disease represents a growing public health problem in developed countries.
Although the pathogenesis is not clearly defined, accumulation of extracellular amyloid,
neurofibrillary tangles and neuronal loss are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. The
effect of anesthetic agents on changes in these proteins in humans is not well characterized,
but in-vitro evidence suggests that anesthetic agents can accelerate potential pathogenic
mechanisms, such as increasing amyloid formation or rates of apoptosis in cultured cells and
increasing amyloid levels in mice. Human data on the effect of anesthetic agents on amyloid
and tau proteins is limited to a small series of 11 patients and showed a significant
increase in tau levels after exposure to anesthetics. In this study the investigators propose
to measure CSF and serum biomarkers in a population of patients with normal CSF dynamics, who
are undergoing surgery for repair of a thoracoabdominal aneurysm. The investigators will also
obtain preliminary data on whether changes in CSF levels of these proteins are associated
with postoperative delirium or cognitive change.