Objective:

to determine the prevalence of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) and their risk factors in patients referred to the Angiology and Vascular Surgery outpatient clinic for the evaluation of peripheral arterial disease (PAD).

Material and methods:

a longitudinal observational study was carried out involving aortoiliac echodoppler exploration of the patients over 50 years of age referred to our center for the exclusion of arterial disease of the lower extremities between February 2012 and December 2016. A physical examination was made in all cases, with the compilation of cardiovascular risk factors. The data obtained were subjected to univariate and multivariate statistical analysis.

Results:

a total of 454 patients were initially included in the study. Of these, 11 were discarded because abdominal gas / obesity impeded measurement of the diameter of the aneurysm. The final sample thus consisted of 443 individuals. The prevalence of aneurysms was 8.8% (n = 39), with a mean diameter of 4.1 (± 1.1 cm). In the patients with an ankle-brachial index (ABI) < 0.9 (indicative of PAD), the prevalence was 11.2% (n = 29) versus 5.2% (n = 10) in those with ABI > 0.9 (p < 0.05). The patients with PAD presented a greater incidence of arterial hypertension and smoking (p < 0.05). In the univariate analysis, on contrasting the patients with factors significantly associated (p < 0.05) to a risk of AAA (group 1) versus those without such risk factors (group 2), diabetes mellitus (DM) was identified as 63 a protective factor (group 1: 28.2%; group 2: 71.8%), while chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (group 1: 64.1%; group 2: 35.9%), PAD (group 1: 74.4%; group 2: 55.2%,), smoking (group 1: 100%, group 2: 82.2%) and age > 65 years (group 1: 89.7%; group 2: 70%) were associated to an increased risk of AAA. In the multivariate analysis, COPD (odds ratio [OR] 4.7), age > 65 years (OR 3.4) and PAD (OR 2.4) were identified as risk factors, while DM proved to be a protective factor (OR 0.4).

Conclusions:

in our population of patients COPD, PAD and age > 65 years were risk factors for AAA, while DM was identified as a protective factor. These findings may contribute to define the risk population with a view to conducting screening studies in a vascular surgery department.

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