Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening using a hand-held ultrasound device. "A pilot study"

The perioperative mortality associated with emergency abdominal aortic aneu rysm surgery can be as high as 50%(1) whereas it is 5-10% for an elective p rocedure.(2) It is therefore recommended that patients undergo prophylactic surgery if the diameter exceeds 55 mm.(3) The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potential and diagnostic accuracy of a recently developed portable hand-held ultrasound system for screening AAA. A standard two-dime nsional echographic system was used as a reference (S.E.).