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- Hager, Jakob, et al.
(author)
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Lower Prevalence than Expected when Screening 70-year-old Men for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
- 2013
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In: European Journal of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. - : Elsevier BV. - 1078-5884 .- 1532-2165. ; 46:4, s. 453-459
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- BackgroundScreening 65-year-old men for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is a cost-effective method to reduce the mortality from ruptured AAA. However, contemporary results show a lower than expected prevalence of AAA, thus questioning the benefit of screening. Since the prevalence increases with age, a possible way to enhance the benefit of screening might be to screen older men. Our aim was to determine the contemporary screening-detected prevalence among 70-year-old men.MethodsA total of 5,623 unscreened 70-year-old men were invited to ultrasound screening. Uni- and multivariable analyses were used to assess the risk factors for AAA.ResultsThe attendance rate was 84.0%. The prevalence of previously unknown AAAs was 2.3%. When adding the 64 men with an already known AAA to the screening-detected ones, the total prevalence in the population was at least 3.0%, and the previously discovered AAAs constituted 37.4% of the total prevalence. “Ex smoker” and “Current smoker” were the most important risk factors.ConclusionsWhen screening 70-year-old men for AAA, the prevalence was less than half that expected, despite a high attendance rate. Smoking was the strongest risk factor. Almost 40% of the men with AAAs were already known from other means than screening.
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