Prevalence and Screening of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Among Men With Coronary Artery Disease

The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) among male patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) verified in coronary angiography. Ethiology of AAA is known to be common with atherosclerotic arterial diseases (coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and carotid artery disease), so the hypothesis is that AAA should be more common among these CAD patients, thus making screening of these patients (for AAA) more cost-efficient.

Study will be carried out as a multi-center prospective screening study. Data will be collected in North Karelia Central Hospital, Kuopio University Hospital and Tampere University Hospital. Data consists of 200 consecutive coronary angiography patients in each hospital, resulting in 600 patients in total. All male patients with diagnosed CAD will be recruited for the study and screened for AAA with ultrasound. Nevertheless, patients with previously known AAA will be excluded from the study.