Abstract of

Prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysms in diabetic men

Eugen Mattes, Timothy M E Davis, Danian Yang, Dorothy Ridley, Helen Lund and Paul E Norman

Electronically published Monday 28 April 1997. Please submit comments by Monday 26 May 1997.

Objective: Many community-based screening studies suggest that the prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men over 60 years approaches 5%. Despite being a group subject to regular screening for vascular complications of their disease, the prevalence of AAA in patients with diabetes has never been examined. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of AAA in diabetic men over 60 years.
Design and Patients: Abdominal aortic ultrasonography was undertaken in 303 diabetic men aged 60 years and over recruited to the Fremantle Diabetes Study, a large community-based study of diabetes.
Main Outcome Measure: An AAA was diagnosed if the aortic diameter was 30 mm or if the subject had undergone previous surgery for AAA.
Results: Of the 303 men scanned, four had already had aortic grafting for AAA and three were found to have previously undiagnosed AAA. The aorta was not visualised in three men. Only one AAA was 50 mm in diameter and hence in need of surgery. This resulted in an overall prevalence of 2.3% (7/300) which was lower than that reported previously in the general population. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of a range of clinical and biochemical variables revealed statistically significant associations with fasting triglycerides and a history of intermittent claudication in our patients.
Conclusions: Ultrasound screening was performed easily and was well tolerated by the patients. Although a small number of diabetic men have undiagnosed AAA, the prevalence does not appear to be high enough to warrant targeted ultrasound screening.
©MJA 1997

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