Routine screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm during clinical transthoracic echocardiography in a Korean population.
BACKGROUND
An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is potentially fatal when ruptured. Whereas the transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) protocol does not routinely include examination of the infrarenal abdominal aorta, the protocol is performed quickly and easily for AAA screening.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical utility of the protocol for AAA screening during TTE in a Korean population referred for clinical TTE.


METHODS
All of the patients who were scheduled for TTE were enrolled in the study. At the end of TTE protocol, the abdominal aorta was evaluated at the level below the renal artery origin.


RESULTS
A total of 6,267 patients were screened, and the abdominal aortas were visualized in 79% (4,939 patients) of patients screened. AAA was diagnosed in 27 patients, 23 of whom were male. The mean age of AAA patients was 66.5 years old, and 81% of AAA patients were over 60 years old. The presence of AAA was associated with male gender and older age, as well as with hypertension and smoking. Of the 27 patients, 11 patients (0.2% of the study population) did not have a history of AAA screening and were newly diagnosed by TTE.


CONCLUSIONS
Screening of AAA during TTE is easy and feasible. Even though the prevalence of AAA in patients is very low, detection of asymptomatic AAA may save lives. Therefore, opportunistic examination of the abdominal aorta during routine TTE, which involves little time and cost, would appear to be effective, at least in patients over 60 years of age, especially in men.
Oh
Se Hoon
SH
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Imaging Center, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Chang
Sung-A
SA
Jang
Shin Yi
SY
Park
Sung-Ji
SJ
Choi
Jin-Oh
JO
Lee
Sang-Chol
SC
Park
Seung Woo
SW
Oh
Jae K
JK
Kim
Duk-Kyung
DK
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D056910:Republic of Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult