Open day screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms in female population: a regional multicenter experience

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper was to report our regional multicenter experience in screening AAAs in women with the goal of making the female population more careful to identify and manage the risk factors for developing AAAs. METHODS: The first open day on abdominal aortic aneurysm was arranged on September 29, 2021, by ONDA (Osservatorio Nazionale sulla Salute della Donna e di Genere). Five hospitals in Tuscany (Italy) adhered to this initiative. All patients underwent ultrasonography with measurement of aortic and iliac diameters. The open day was free of charge for the patients. RESULTS: A total of 180 female patients with an age >55 years went spontaneously to outpatient setting and received a complete evaluation. Patients had a mean age of 64.9 years (SD±7.9). Forty-five patients (25%) had a current smoking habit. At US examination the mean abdominal aortic diameter was 17 mm (SD±4.7). An AAA was detected in 3 cases (2 unknown). CONCLUSIONS: Screening AAAs in women still remains uncertain. The usefulness of an open day screening for AAA in women, as in our experience, seems to be a right initiative for alerting the population to the knowledge of this vascular disease. Future research on a larger number of patients should be conducted in order to explore the real benefits of AAA screening in asymptomatic women without risk factors.