Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Prevalence of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA), estimated by various studies, ranged from 4.1% to 14.2% in men older than 60 years. Most cases of AAA are asymptomatic and often discovered incidentally. Approximately the initial presentation in 12% of cases of AAA is sudden rupture with subsequent high mortality. This study was performed to evaluate the prevalence and screening necessity of AAA among Iranian men older than 65 years old.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, men older than 65 years, who referred for ultrasound examination to three different centers in Tehran, Iran at the year 2008 were included for evaluation of size of the abdominal aorta and presence of AAA.

Results: A total of 240 men older than 65 years enrolled in this study. AAA was found in 24 of the participants with prevalence rate of 10% in the studied population. Mean diameter of detected aneurysms was 3.931.435 cm. In 4 (1.7%) subjects, aneurysms greater than 5.5 cm in diameter were detected. One of these four subjects had the history of coronary artery disease and one was cigarette smoker. Three out of four had history of hypertension.

Conclusion: Considering the estimated prevalence rate of AAA by the current study and the population of Iranian men older than 65, implementing of mass screening for AAA in this group would detect 986 asymptomatic cases each year. Therefore, the authors recommend further studies about the cost-effectiveness of mass screening for AAA among Iranian men above 65 years.