Non-specific aortic arteritis remains a disease of unknown aetiology, in which the treatment is empiric, the indications for surgery controversial and the prognosis unpredictable. Most series emanate from the Far East, with few contributions from Africa. The pattern of disease as seen in-Cape Town has not been documented since the study of Schrire and Asherson in 1964, containing 18 cases. In this study at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Children's Hospital from 1952 to 1987, only patients who had been extensively investigated and subjected to angiography were included. strict· inclusion criteria excluded patients with specific forms of aortic arteritis. 220 patients were studied of which 77% were female. Mean age 25(1-66). 68% were "Coloured" or Asian, 24% Black and 8% White. Involvement of the entire aorta was seen in 62%. The· aortic arch was involved in 70% but isolated arch disease occurred in only 9%. Aortic bifurcation disease occurred in 30%, an unusually high incidence. 93% had occlusive disease. 50% had aneurysms, which usually occurred together with occlusive disease. 7 patients presented with ruptured aneurysm. Hypertension due to renal artery stenosis or to coarctation was the commonest presentation (76%). 103 (47%) patients had cardiac disease (hypertensive cardiac failure or aortic incompetence.) Upper or lower limb claudication was present in 77 patients with gangrene in only 11. 43 patients had clinical evidence of cerebrovascular disease. 54 patients are known to have died, with cardiac failure responsible for almost 50%. Follow-up of 5-20 years was possible in 40% of patients. Two-thirds showed no further progression in this period. Vascular reconstruction was performed in 43 patients (21%). Other treatment modalities included corticosteroids (11%) and antituberculous therapy (28%). Proven tuberculosis was present in only 20% of cases. The pattern of disease in Cape Town tends to be diffuse, usually with extensive branch vessel involvement, and thus seldom amenable to reconstructive vascular surgery. Hypertension and cardiac failure are the commonest presenting symptoms and the most frequent cause of death. The aetiology of this condition remains obscure and the pathogenetic link with Tuberculosis is controversial. A significant number of patients have "burnt out" disease, and prolonged survival has been observed.

Afin d’apporter les soins adéquats aux victimes d'arrêt cardiaque extrahospitalier, l'évaluation de leur état hémodynamique est primordiale. La prise de pouls manuelle ne permet pas une identification fiable de l'arrêt cardiaque par les profanes ou une discrimination des rythmes organisés par les premiers intervenants. Dans ce contexte, l'entreprise Schiller Médical a cherché à intégrer dans sa gamme de défibrillateurs un module de détection de l'hémodynamique systémique par analyse de l'électrocardiogramme et des variations d'impédance transthoracique recueillis via les électrodes de défibrillation. Ce travail de recherche mené en partenariat entre l'entreprise Schiller Médical et l'Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien de l’Université de Strasbourg a consisté dans un premier temps a recherché, lors d'arrêt cardiaque induit électriquement chez l'homme, des descripteurs des variations d'impédance transthoracique marqueurs de l’hémodynamique systémique. L’identification des descripteurs les plus pertinents a par la suite permis de construire des modèles prédictifs des défaillances circulatoires. Nous avons mis en lumière des limites à l’utilisation des variations d’impédance transthoracique. Elles sont prises en considération pour la documentation des interventions extrahospitalières destinée à l’apprentissage des algorithmes de classification des rythmes perfusants et rythmes sans pouls. / Providing suitable emergency care during out of hospital cardiac arrest requires the diagnostic of the circulatory status. Manual pulse check does not provide a reliable way for laypersons to identify cardiac arrest or for first responders to discriminate organized rhythms. Thus, Schiller Medical sought to embed an hemodynamic sensor in its external defibrillators by analyzing the electrocardiogram and transthoracic impedance recorded via the defibrillation pads. This thesis work stemmed from a partnership between Schiller Medical and the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien of the Université de Strasbourg. We first identified transthoracic impedance featureslinked with the circulatory status by studying clinically induced cardiac arrest. The most relevant features were later selected to form predictive models of hemodynamic collapse. We uncovered restrictions to the use of transthoracic impedance. We took them into account for the annotation of out of hospital cardiac arrests aimed at training algorithms for the classification of pulseless electrical activity and pulsatile rhythms.