# AAA screening



## bognormike (May 10, 2005)

Having reached the grand old age of 65, and being male, it appears I was eligible for an ultrasound to check for this - Abdominal Aortic Screening

http://aaa.screening.nhs.uk/

I had this done today, no problems thankfully. But I remember that Viv's mum died of this, and I asked the nurse whether ladies were being selected as well. Apparently not, as men around 65 are more likely to have problems than ladies of the same age, and statistically it's worthwhile calling men for scanning. But the risk can be increased if a parent (or brother/ sister) has had an AAA, so I have called my 2 brothers in law to see whether they have had the test. 
Even if you're not yet 65, it may be worth asking your GP for a scan if there is a history in the family.
8)


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## Frantone (Sep 6, 2006)

*AAA*

Good post Mike. 
I have also just reached the magic age and have the screening booked for next week. Frances wondered why she had not been called and now we know why!
TonyP


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## Mike48 (May 1, 2005)

I had mine last week. I was told that they expected to find an average of 4% of screened patients to have an AAA. But in practice they were only finding issues with 2%. They put this down to the high number of "no shows".


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## klyne (May 10, 2005)

I had mine done in mid December and was fine fortunately. You can self refer via the website link.

David


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## rayc (Jun 3, 2008)

I saw these statistics on the web;

240 men need to be invited (192 scanned) to save one AAA death over 10 years.
Each 2,080 men invited for screening (1,660 scanned) result in one extra post-elective surgery death.

This means that over 10 years, for every 10,000 men scanned under the NAAASP, 65 AAA ruptures will be prevented, saving 52 lives. However, there will also be six post-elective surgery deaths involving men whose aneurysm is detected under the screening programme.


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## Chausson (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi
I had mine done a few months ago, the nurse doing the test tried to put the fright into me spelling out what could happen, anyway all was fine when finished.

Ron


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