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.

Publications with shared reference:

0 publications found