Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm: Screening reduces deaths related to aneurysm

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.601-a

BMJ 2005;330:601 (12 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7491.601-a

Letter

Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm

Screening reduces deaths related to aneurysm

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The Australian randomised trial of aortic aneurysmscreening observed 18 deaths related to aneurysm in the groupof men invited for screening and 25 in the control group.¹ Thecorresponding reduction in mortality was 39% (relative risk0.61, 95% confidence interval 0.33 to 1.11), which the authorssummarise as showing that screening did not reduce overall deathrates. The authors have fallen into the common trap of interpretinga non-significant difference as evidence of no difference.

The stated conclusion is all the more surprising given the availableevidence from other randomised trials (table). In each trial,the number of aneurysm related deaths in the men invited forscreening is lower than in the control group, and so the relativerisks are all below 1. The widths of the confidence intervalsvary according to the size and power of the trial. The largesttrial, the multicentre aneurysm . . . [Full text of this article]

Simon Thompson, director

simon.thompson@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk, MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge CB2 2SR

Lois Kim, statistician

MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge CB2 2SR

Alan Scott, research director

Scott Research Unit, St Richard's Hospital, Chichester PO19 4SE

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