BMJ  2004;329 (27 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7477.0

Screening for aneurysm fails to reduce mortality

Screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm did not reduce mortality among Australian men aged 65-83. Norman and colleagues (p 1259) randomised 41 000 men to invitation to ultrasound screening or no intervention. About 7% of respondents had an aortic diameter 30 mm and 0.5% a diameter 55 mm. Almost twice as many men in the intervention group than in the control group had elective surgery. In the five years after the start of screening, 18 men in the intervention group and 25 in the control group died from abdominal aortic aneurysm. Any benefit of screening was almost entirely in men aged 65-75, but at a whole population level screening was not effective in reducing mortality.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Population based randomised controlled trial on impact of screening on mortality from abdominal aortic aneurysm

Paul E Norman, Konrad Jamrozik, Michael M Lawrence-Brown, Max T Q Le, Carole A Spencer, Raywin J Tuohy, Richard W Parsons, and James A Dickinson
BMJ 2004 329: 1259. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Online poll

Find out more on doc2doc >>