Hi,
I looked back in my files and found some information regarding this topic that you may find informative.
Happy Easter!
Rob
Aortic Detection.
How are AORTIC ANEURYSMS detected?
Patients sometimes detect an aneurysm by feeling a pulsating mass in the abdomen, or it may be found by their physician during a routine physical examination. The best way to detect unsuspected aortic aneurysms is by an ultrasound or CAT scan of the abdomen. Ultrasound is quick, inexpensive, non-invasive, and accurate; if the aorta can be seen, the presence of an aneurysm can be identified or excluded. CAT scans of the abdomen remain the most accurate tests for aortic aneurysm, both for initial detection and for determining aneurysm size. They provide information equal to MRI scans.
Delay Suggested For Aneurysm Surgery
May 9, 2002
The Associated Press (AP)
Two new studies on aortic aneurysms, weak spots in the body's largest blood
vessel that can burst and cause a person to drop dead, suggest that many
doctors can safely wait a little longer to operate than they used to.
Surgeons have long known that small aneurysms are unlikely to break, and
they typically wait until the weak spot gets big enough to worry about.
However, they disagreed over whether that should be 4, 5 or 6 centimeters,
or anywhere from 1.6 to 2.4 inches.
The new studies set a higher threshold for what is "big enough," at least in
men.
If the aorta balloons out less than 5.5 centimeters, just under 2.2 inches,
it makes more sense to check it every six months rather than sew it back
together immediately, surgeons with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
and the United Kingdom Small Aneurysm Trial concluded.
"A test like ultrasound typically costs $150 or $200. The operation is more
on the order of $25,000 or more. You'd have to do a lot of surveillance
before the cost was comparable," said Dr. Frank A. Lederle, director of the
VA Medical Center in Minneapolis and lead author of the U.S. study.
Most aneurysms eventually will get big enough to need surgery. The question
is whether the danger of death from the untreated aneurysm is greater than
that from the operation itself.
Both studies found that the chances of death in those who underwent early
surgery and those who waited were about equal among men for the first five
years.
Four centimeters, about 1.6 inches, had been considered the threshold for
operating on an aneurysm, but two studies in the early 1990s suggested that
5 or 6 centimeters, as much as 2.4 inches, would make more sense. Many
surgeons already had moved to the higher threshold.
The new study "is hard data for something I personally believed in, patients
with 4- or 5-centimeter aneurysms don't need surgery immediately," said Dr.
John Kern, head of vascular surgery at the University of Virginia Hospital.
He added: "These are two studies a lot of us were waiting to see in press.
We were all quite excited by the data being generated."
The U.S. study looked at 1,135 patients at VA hospitals around the country.
The British research involved 188 women and 902 men in England, Scotland and
Wales.
The British study found that women's aneurysms are FOUR TIMES MORE LIKELY TO
RUPTURE than men's.
It said 5.5 centimeters may be too high a threshold for women, but it did
not have enough information to suggest what the threshold should be.
