Rinker, Kristina D.Moore Randy D.Kennard, Jacob Justin2020-01-202020-01-202020-01-13Kennard, J. J. (2020). Transcriptomic Analysis for the Identification and Prioritization of Treatment of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111524Abdominal aortic aneurysms are pathological dilations of the abdominal aorta, characterized by a high mortality rate, and a lack of effective prognostic predictors. As the disease progresses, the aortic wall becomes significantly degraded and eventually the structure is compromised, leading to rupture and often death. Understanding the changes in gene expression that correlate to altered hemodynamics and mechanical properties within the aorta can help elucidate the nature of this degradation and improve rupture risk predictions. The present study leverages a novel clinical study design to provide validation for a previously proposed non-invasive, in-vivo metric. The metric uses imaging information as well as computational fluid dynamics and in-vivo strain measurements to better assess aneurysm stability and improve risk management. This study demonstrated that areas of an aneurysm predicted to be of high risk by the relative rupture potential exhibited significant changes in gene expression related to disease progression. It was also demonstrated that the relative rupture potential better predicts gene expression related to disease progression than any single metric for aneurysm stability. In addition to validation of the relative rupture potential, evidence for the infiltration of specific immune cells in high risk areas was found, providing an excellent starting point for future studies investigating the peripheral blood of abdominal aortic aneurysm patients for markers of aneurysm presence or stability. These studies could lay the groundwork for a blood test to be used in conjunction with imaging technologies to further improve abdominal aortic aneurysm risk assessment.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Gene expressionAbdominal aortic aneurysmBioinformaticsmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/37476