Alongside UAB School of Medicine Medical Student Hunter Boudreau, UAB Vascular Surgery Resident Juliet Blakeslee-Carter, M.D., won the 2021 Southern Association for Vascular Surgery (SAVS) ePoster competition.

Their abstract was titled “Effects of Statin and Antiplatelet Therapy on Mortality Rates in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Patients,” and Boudreau presented their abstract at the 2021 SAVS Annual Meeting. The study aimed to describe the long-term mortality effects in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) patients with and without atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ACVD) who undergo AAA repair.

Boudreau and Blakeslee-Carter concluded that statin therapy is associated with improved survival in AAA patients regardless of the presence of a known ACVD indication. Although they were unable to assess AAA patients in surveillance prior to repair using SVS VQI data, statin therapy appears to have significant survival benefits even in isolated AAA without ACVD.

Founded in 1976, the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery is a vascular surgical organization established to promote the art and science of peripheral vascular surgery, to further education, and to perpetuate friendships of its selected members. Association members are invited and selected on the basis of their surgical competence and professional merit.