• P Jaakkola, M Hippeläinen, P Farin, and K Partanen.
• Department of Surgery, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland.
• Eur J Surg. 1995 Dec 1; 161 (12): 871-5.

ObjectiveTo compare the dimensions of the infrarenal aorta and the prevalence of undiagnosed infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms in the siblings of patients operated on for either infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm or aortoiliac occlusive disease.DesignProspective screening study.SettingUniversity hospital, Finland.Subjects220 siblings of patients operated for either abdominal aortic aneurysm or aortoiliac occlusive disease.InterventionsAbdominal aortic ultrasound.Main Outcome MeasuresAnteroposterior and transversal diameters of infrarenal and suprarenal aorta.ResultsThere was a group of 5 siblings (4 men and 1 woman, aged 59 years or more) among the aneurysm patients who had a disposition to infrarenal aneurysm formation defined as a dilatation of 30 mm or more. This contrasted with none among the siblings of the patients with aortoiliac occlusive disease (p = 0.07, 95% confidence interval 0.49 to 165.3). The two factors affecting the diameter of the infrarenal aorta were age and sex. The aortic dimensions tended to be bigger in the siblings of the aneurysm patients but the differences were not significant. The ratio of infrarenal to suprarenal diameter was bigger in the siblings of the aneurysm patients also after excluding the cases with detected dilatations (p = 0.05) and in the multivariate analysis the only factor explaining this difference was the type of the disease of the proband.ConclusionsThe screening of male siblings (over 55 years old) of patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms might be justified.

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