Long-term Outcomes of the Western Australian Trial of Screening for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The initial reports1-4 of 4 large randomized clinical trials of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men 65 years or older indicated that screening reduces mortality from AAAs. The long-term results of the Multicentre Aneurysm Screening Study (MASS) in the United Kingdom revealed that the benefit was sustained at 13 years with a 42% (95% CI, 31%-51%) relative reduction in mortality from AAAs.5 In the Danish trial of screening, there was a 66% (95% CI, 43%-80%) reduction at 14 years of follow-up.5 Screening for AAAs also appeared to be cost-effective in these 2 studies.6,7 In MASS, the absolute risk reduction in mortality was only 0.46% after approximately 14 years. The early results of the Western Australian trial of screening for AAAs were reported in 2004.3 This trial included men aged 65 to 83 years, which was older than the men in MASS (65-74 years old) and the Danish trial (65-73 years old). Although results after 43 months of follow-up demonstrated a relative risk reduction of 39%, this finding was not statistically significant, and long-term results to enable comparison with the MASS and Danish trials have not been reported.

This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit: