Screening for Prevalence of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm During Transthoracic Echocardiography in Patient With Significant Coronary Artery Disease

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) has ethnic differences, and coronary artery disease (CAD) shares several risk factors with AAA. Sparse Indian data are available on this. We evaluated the prevalence of AAA during transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and risk factors of AAA in patients with CAD. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study carried out in the cardiology department at a tertiary care center from January 1, 2017 to November 30, 2017. All patients with CAD/acute coronary syndrome (ACS) were included in the study, and patients with AAA due to other etiology were excluded. Screening for an AAA was performed directly using an echocardiographic 3.5-MHz cardiac probe. RESULTS: A total of 526 patients were screened; and AAA was present in 25 (4.8%) of CAD patients. Smoking, hypertension and hyperlipidemia were predominant risk factors for AAA in our study, but were not statistically significant because same risk factors were also prevalent in the comparison group. Diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and family history were statistically significant risk factors for AAA in our study. The mean size of AAA was 34 mm. CONCLUSIONS: Presence of AAA is significantly higher among CAD patients. CAD shares several risk factors with AAA. Therefore, opportunistic examination of the abdominal aorta during routine TTE could be an effective way of screening. Diabetes mellitus, peripheral artery disease and family history were the significant associated risk factors of AAA in CAD patients.