Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm during transthoracic echocardiography in patients with significant coronary artery disease.

Purpose: Coronary artery disease (CAD) shares several risk factors with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). We evaluated the prevalence during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and risk factors of AAA in patients with CAD.

Materials And Methods: A total of 1300 CAD patients were screened from August 2009 to May 2010, and measurement of abdominal aorta size was feasible in 920 patients (71%) at the end of routine TTE. An AAA was defined as having a maximal diameter of ≥30 mm.

Results: Of the 920 patients, 22 (2.4% of the study population) were diagnosed with AAA; of these AAA patients, 86% were male, and 82% were over 65 years-old. Abdominal aortic size was weakly correlated with aortic root diameter (r=0.22, p<0.01). Although the proportions of male gender, hypertension, and dyslipidemia were higher in AAA patients, such differences were not statistically significant. Advanced age [odds ratio (OR)=1.07; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01-1.12; p<0.01], smoking (OR=3.44; 95% CI: 1.18-10.04; p=0.02), and peripheral arterial disease (OR=5.88; 95% CI: 1.38-25.05; p=0.01) were found to be associated with AAA.

Conclusion: Although prevalence of AAA is very low in the Asian population, the prevalence of AAA in Asian CAD patients is higher than the general population. Therefore, opportunistic examination of the abdominal aorta during routine TTE could be effective, especially for male CAD patients over 65 years with a history of smoking or peripheral arterial disease.