Are aortic endograft prostheses fully hemo-compatible? A dielectric spectroscopy investigation of the electrical alterations induced on erythrocyte cell membranes

In this paper we present a new approach directed to ascertain the full hemo-compatibility of aortic endograft prostheses based on the measurement of the passive electrical parameters of the erythrocyte cell membrane. The red blood cell membrane, from an electric point of view, is characterized by an electrical permittivity, εs, which takes into account the structural charged organization of the lipid double layer, and by the electrical conductivity, σs, which accounts for the ionic transport processes across the membrane. These parameters can be easily measured by means of a radiowave dielectric spectroscopy technique, analyzing the dependence of the electrical impedance of an erythrocyte suspension on the frequency of the applied electric field. In this preliminary report, we investigate the alterations induced, at a membrane level, by two different devices commonly employed for endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm exclusion, i.e., Excluder (registered) and Zenith (registered) devices, implanted in ten patients. We observe, in all the cases investigated, a statistically significant increase of both the permittivity εs and electrical conductivity σs of the erythrocyte membrane upon the prosthesis implant, this increase being higher than about 20% of the un-treated values. Moreover, these alterations remain roughly unaffected 30 days after surgery. These findings suggest that a complete hemo-compatibility of these prostheses is lacking, even if the observed alterations may not have a clinical relevance