Screening to Avoid a Fatal Outcome

The journal of vascular medicine published a consensus statement. It says that 15,000 people die from abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture per year. Abdominal aortic aneurysm is the abnormal ballooning of the large artery called aorta that runs in head to toe direction, in the middle of your abdomen. Four to eight percent of the males and 1.5% of females above the age of 60 have aortic aneurysm more than 3 cm in size.
If you have an aneurysm in the abdominal aorta that is more than 5.5 cm in size, the chances of it rupturing is 16% per year. Quite a scary scenario!
A recent study from UK concluded that proper surgical treatment of these aneurysms can significantly decrease mortality. A simple ultrasound of the abdomen can diagnose the aneurysm.
The article under discussion suggests that all males between 60 to 85, and females in the same age group with some cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, and other factors, should undergo ultrasound of the abdomen to screen for aneurysm.
They recommend that males or females older than 50 years with family history of abdominal aortic aneurysm should undergo this screening ultrasound. This article makes a convincing argument from the financial point as well. It says that cost-effectiveness of screening ultrasound will be somewhat similar to that of mammogram, a test used to screen for breast cancer in females.
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