Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening may not substantially contribute to large observed reductions in AAA mortality, according to a study recently published in The Lancet. Minna Johansson, MD, et al., assessed how AAA screening in Sweden affected disease-specific mortality, incidence and surgery in a cohort of 65-year-old men who completed screening from 2006 to 2009.

Results showed that reductions were mostly caused by other factors such as reduced smoking. The study concluded that small and less favorable benefit-to-harm balance calls the continued justification of the intervention into question. Read more on ACC.org.